7.Addenda - Bellsouthpwp.net

Rich and Famous Howlands
Joseph Howland (1749-1836)
his sons:
Gardiner Greene Howland (1787-1851)
Samuel Shaw Howland (1790-1853)
Great New England Merchants
(5 th Cousins, 4 Times Removed of Norman W. Pettys, Sr.)
Joseph 5 Howland
Page 363
Joseph 5 Howland (Nathaniel 4 ; Nathaniel 3 ; Joseph 2 ; John 1 ), a great-great grandson of the Pilgrim, John Howland,
was born in Boston in 1749. He married in 1772 Lydia Bill, daughter of Ephraim Bill of Norwich, Connecticut. Joseph
Howland began his business career as an apprentice with the commercial house of Benjamin Greene & Son, and on
attaining his majority went to Norwich [Conn.], where he engaged in trade with the West India islands. He was made
a freeman of the city in 1773. Shortly afterwards, he formed a partnership with Thomas Coit, under the firm of Howland
& Coit, and later with John Allyn, under the style of Howland & Allyn. In the early 1800s he was in partnership with
his son Joseph and with Jesse Brown. Mr. Brown conducted the business in Norwich, while the Howlands, in 1802, had
settled near New York. He still continued prominent in Norwich affairs, however, being a director in several financial
institutions and president of the Norwich Insurance Co. The firm of Joseph Howland & Son were large ship owners,
possessing the ship “Centurion” and 15 or 20 brigs, schooners and sloops. In 1808 he was made president of the
Highland Turnpike Co., in which position he continued until 1831, when the company was merged into the Hudson
River Railroad. (1)
Sons of Joseph 5 and Lydia Bill Howland.
Gardiner Greene 6 Howland and Samuel Shaw 6 Howland
Gardiner Greene 6 Howland was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1787 came to New York as a boy and learned the
merchant's trade in the house of Leroy, Bayard & McEvers, where he clerked for many years. When he was sent to
Matanzas as a supercargo for LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers, he made the acquaintances which would seriously further his
mercantile career, including the house of Wright, Shelton & Co of St. Jago de Cuba.
Wright, an Englishman, also owned Gran Sofia, the largest coffee plantation of Cuba. The Sheltons, Stephen and Henry,
were from Connecticut. Among the various businesses of Wright, Shelton & Co was the lucrative slave trade.
Back in New York, Gardner Greene Howland started on his own account. His brother Samuel Shaw Howland, who had
started as a clerk in the auction business and then acted on his own as a coffee broker, joined him three years later. Thus
was created G.G. & S Howland.
Through his marriage to a daughter of the rich merchant William Edgar, Gardiner Howland secured enough means to
expand the firm. The first vessel they operated in the Matanzas trade was thus called the “Edgar,” a schooner built in
the same year that Gardiner Howland's eldest son William Edgar Howland was born.