Who was the father of Henry Howland Sr, father of Plymouth Colony Howlands? [closed]

+8 votes
2.1k views
In attempting to merge the duplicate Henry Howland Sr profiles (target = Howland-326), one of the dupes (Howland-708, currently set as unmerged match) claims parents John Howland and Emma Revell.

Has this been substantiated?
WikiTree profile: Henry Howland
closed with the note: Resolved
in Genealogy Help by Jillaine Smith G2G6 Pilot (907k points)
closed by Darlene Athey-Hill
I have it that Henry Howland, born 1564 was the son of John Howland, b. 1541.
Thanks, Frank. What source do you have for that?
I did not document a source, but may have obtained it from a Mayflower Howland book from a local library some months back.

 The way I had it entered is John Howland, Sr. b 1602 Of Fen Stanton, Huntingdonshire, England. He married Elizabeth Tilley March 25, 1623 at Plymouth, MA.

John Howland Senior's father was Henry Howland b 1564 who was the son of John Howland b 1541.

Sorry, about the lack of documentation.

Eunice, the reference you gave predates the 1937 discovery that the father of the Howland brothers was named in the apprentice records of the Draper company of London.  He was named as Henry Howland of Fen Stanton, Huntingdonshire.

  • Howland Quarterly Magazine, The Pilgrim John Howland Society,  vol. 1 no. 3 (January 1937): 1. Ancestry of the Pilgrim John Howland.
  • Clarence Almon Torrey, "The Howland Ancestry," in The American Genealogist,Vol 14, (1937-8): 214-215. 
  • Robert S. Wakefield & Robert M. Sherman, "Henry Howland of Duxbury, Massachusetts, 1633, His Children and His Grandchildren," in NGS Quarterly, 75(June 1987):105-113.
Thank you.
Thanks everyone, I have disconnected my connections that i had for John Howland and Emma Revell to this Henry Howland for both my Ancestry and My Heritage Tree.  Does anyone know or have proof yet as to whom Henry's parents were.

The Pilgrim John Howland Society has very recently hired Caleb Johnson (perhaps the foremost Mayflower genealogist) who carried out an intensive search for the parents of Henry Howland of Fenstanton in Fenstanton and all surrounding parishes.

The basic answer is there were a number of Howland families in Cambridgeshire who all used the name Henry in their family,  None of them can be connected to Henry Howland of Fenstaton.  He is definitely not a son of John Howland and Emma Revelle (this has been known for over 100 years).  He is also not identical with Henry Howland of Ely, Cambridgeshire who m. Alice Ayers as has been more recently hypothesized.

The parents of Henry Howland remain unknown.  The LNAB of his wife Margaret remains unknown.

John Howland was a lot younger than his bride Elizabeth Tilley when they m. 1623 in Plymouth.
Wikitree has John Howland born about 1592 and Elizabeth Tilley born Aug 1607.
Between 1585 and 1614, all the wills of John Howland, his wife Emme Howland, his mother Mrs. Anges (Greenway) Quarles, and his four brothers proved that John and Emme Howland had the only three surviving children, John Howland, Margaret (Howland) Catesby, and Nicholas Howland.

All the seven wills proved that they are not the parents of Henry Howland of Fenstanton as previously stated, and it is a common error found on the internet. All the seven wills are not shown any hint of disinheriting him at all because they knew who their children were.

All the seven wills can be found in Ancestry.com or The National Archives at London. All of them already have been transcribed here on the Wikitree. You can see them there at as follows:

* John Howland (Howland-72)

* Emme (Revell) Howland (Revell-3)

* Robert Howland (Howland-624)

* William Howland (Howland-623)

* Giles Howland (Howland-556)

* William Howland (Howland-2828)

* Agnes (Greenway) Quarles (Greenway-3)

3 Answers

+5 votes

Don't know if this will help.

SOURCE:  NEHGS

http://www.americanancestors.org/pilgrim-families-henry-howland/

Pilgrim Village Families Sketch: Henry Howland

by  Robert Charles Anderson

 Henry Howland was born about 1603, probably in Fen Stanton, Huntingdonshire.

 He died on January 1, 1670/1, in Duxbury.

Ship: Unknown, 1632

Life in England: Henry Howland was the son of Henry Howland and Margaret (—) of Fen Stanton, one of six children. His older brother Humphrey was a member of the Drapers’ Company of London.Their brother Simon was apprenticed to Humphrey in 1622 and made free of the company on March 24, 1629. Henry was apprenticed to Humphrey on October 1, 1623, but apparently never finished his apprenticeship.

 

by Chris Hoyt G2G6 Pilot (864k points)
edited by Chris Hoyt
This Henry Howland was born about 1603-1610 and seem to be the son of the Henry Howland Jilliane asked about.  He is well documentated in the Great Migration Begins Series.
I'm actually wondering about the next generation back.
Where is this online?
Becky the URL is included in the opening if the answer.  Someone posted then apparently deleted a concern that this answer is a copyright violation.  S/he might be correct.  It's a cut and paste.  Chris you might want to edit you answer and make the the link clickable and either delete or summarize the text.
Becky, I reread your question.  The Great Migration series is published in book form and is also available digitally to NEHGS members on americanancestors.org.  Part of the series is also avail to ancestry.com subscribers.  IMHO anyone doing research on colonial New England ancestors would benefit from NEHGS membership.
Jillaine, I started cleaning up the profile.  I have disconnected his parents also.  Can you add the Project Protection?
Done (awhile ago, but I forgot to respond here). Thanks for your work on this profile, Joe.
+2 votes
I realize it's an old post, but I got my information here: https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/stamboom-millecam/I1945.php

Which says that John Howland 1541-1611 and Emma Revell 1542-1613 are the parents of Henry Howland 1564-1635, who is the father of Mayflower Pilgrim John Howland, as well as Brothers Henry, Arthur, Humphrey and George, and sister Margaret
by Jim Lamson G2G1 (1.6k points)
This is an internet error which has been disproved for almost 100 years.
I was unaware. Can you shed some light on this? Thanks

I believe the story goes like this...  First, there is no evidence or reason to think that Henry Howland of Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire was a son of John Howland of co. Essex and a salter in London.  It is a mishmash of different theories with no basis in fact.

The original theory came from a document a descendant brought over in the 1830s.  This theory and document, which was widely accepted and unchallenged, said that John Howland citizen of London baptized 10 August 1541 married Emme, daughter Nicholas Revell citizen and grocer of London.  And that it was his son John Howland who was the Mayflower passenger (and by extention of your Henry Howland).

This was finally disproved and repudiated in the NEHGR in 1880, when it was shown that the son John had died unmarried in London and so of course he was not the Mayflower passenger.

At this time, researchers were aware of the will of Humphrey Howland which is the key proof that Arthur, Henry, and John Howland of New England were his brothers.  In 1937, it was discovered by researching the apprentice records of the Draper company of London, that the father of all these Howlands was Henry Howland of Fenstanton.

Nothing is really known of this Henry.  He was named as the father of Simon and Henry Howland in the apprentice records (by extension he is the father then also of Arthur, Humphrey, and John).  There is a burial record for he and his wife.

There is nothing then to connect Henry of Fenstanton to the John Howland who married Emma Revell.  Someone took the new discovery of the name of the father of the New England immigrants, combined it with the old theory regarding John Howland, and created a father for Henry Howland of Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire as John Howland from co. Essex and salter of London.  There is no real evidence or connection.

This is my understanding of the error anyways.  There is probably a better explanation in the definitive article on Henry Howland:  Robert S. Wakefield & Robert M. Sherman, "Henry Howland of Duxbury, Massachusetts, 1633, His Children and His Grandchildren," in NGS Quarterly, 75(June 1987):105-113.

Great summary, Joe.  It looks like John and Emma have reappeared as Henry Sr’s parents again— probably through a merge.  They need to be re-detached and Henry’s profile protected so it doesn’t happen again. Your summary should be added as a Disputed Origins section. Notice of some sort should also go on the profiles of John and Emma  

The protection could be “managed” by the Mayflower Families project. Becky, are you watching?
Henry and Arthur Howland are both protected by the PGM.  We could have PGM protect the parents since it is a bit more active project.
Thanks for your explanation, I had no idea, as I’m new to this site, and fairly new to genealogy (couple years or so). I’ll update my records to reflect this information.

Jim
I don't see as the PGM project took this on and protected the profile and detached the parents. Jillaine or Joe, do one of you have time to do this?
Looks like Joe has taken care of it.

Thanks for the nudge, Darlene. While we've vastly improved the tracking of PGM-related g2g threads, there are still some that have slipped through the cracks.

Finished cleaning up and sourcing the profile.  It is much more accurate now.  For the most part it follows the research of noted Mayflower researcher Caleb Johnson.

Thank you, Joe!
+5 votes

From the MayflowerDNA.org wiki https://mayflowerdna.org/wiki/index.php?title=Howland_(Y-DNA)

The Pilgrim John Howland Society has hired a noted Mayflower passenger origins researcher (Caleb Johnson) to trace the origins of the Howland family. His first report was printed in The Howland Quarterly MAR 2016, pp. 10-20.

Johnson reported he found no evidence of the Howland family in Fen Stanton prior to the time of Henry Howland (father of Pilgrim John). We know Henry was living there as early as 1604, when his son, Simon, was baptized (from the Bishop's Transcript records). Unfortunately both the Parish records, and the Bishop's Transcripts are mostly missing from this time period, so we cannot state when Henry moved to Fen Stanton, nor know whether any of the other children were born there or elsewhere.

Johnson did find Howland families in nearby Cambridgeshire. He was able to conclusively prove the Henry Howland of Ely, Cambridgeshire (who had a son John bp in 1602/3) was not the Henry Howland of Fen Stanton, but instead, likely a cousin to some degree.

Johnson did note there was a Howland family at Horningsea, Cambridgeshire in the early part of the 16th Century to the early part of the 17th Century. This family had a history of naming sons Henry & John, so it is possible this is the area where Henry (father of John) originally was from.

by
Well, after reading all this, I wonder if I should just wipe out all my Howlands. I can't keep all these Henry's and John's straight. In my tree, I disconnected John Howland and Emma Revell and let them float around. But on the father of John Howland B 1591-D 1672, married to Elizabeth Tilley, the name I show right now for his parents are John Henry Howland IV  B 1566 D 1635 and Anne-Margaret Aires G 1557 D 1629.  Can you tell me if this is correct please?     Thank you. And the farthest back that I am sure of my Howland line, is GG Grandfather Isaac Cornell Howland, B 1794 New York, Died 5 Nov 1870 Lineville, IA. I have my line down from him.  Does anyone have anything above him?

Thank you

Pearl King
It is not correct Pearl - it has been proven that Henry Howland and Anne Aires are not the parents Henry Howland of Fenstanton.

The parents of Henry Howland of Fenstanton (father of the New England immigrants) should be unknown, as shown on the profile.
ok, so the correct father of John Howland 1591-1672, who married Elizabeth Tilley, should be Henry Howland, what dates and wife's name?

It is all on the profile of Henry Howland with pretty good explanations and sources.

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