Tabitha (Howland) Hopkins (1747)

Born 6 Jan 1747 in Scituate, Providence, Rhode Island

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

This profile is part of the Howland Name Study.

A female or male descendant of this strictly unbroken maternal line is needed to take a full mitochondrial DNA test from Family TreeDNA. (Unfortunately, autosomal DNA tests cannot currently be used to go as far back as the dawn of the seventeenth century. Please, do not take autosomal DNA tests for this maternal line.)

Objective: Compare the mitochondrial DNA results through her two other sisters and her mother's maternal lines to verify the relationship between Freelove (Seamans) Howland and Freelove (Howland) Eldridge.

Contact me if you are interested.

Birth

Tabitha Howland was born on January 6, 1746, in Scituate, Providence County, Rhode Island.^[1] She was the daughter of Samuel Howland and Freelove Seamans. The original date of her birth was written in the Old Style calendar before the British Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, but sometimes, the New Style calendar was not used in some records in the American Colonies until after 1752. Therefore, it is elucidating that January 4, 1746, was written in the Old Style dating system, and she actually was born on January 6, 1747.

Marriage

Tabitha Howland married Laban Hopkins in Scituate, Providence County, Rhode Island, sometime before 1774.

Children

Tabitha Howland and Laban Hopkins had two daughters as follow:

1. Susanna Hopkins (bef. 1774).
2. Martha Hopkins (aft. 1775).

Census

1774 • Scituate, Providence, Rhode Island

On June 1st, Laban Hopkins and his family were recorded in the 1774 Census of Rhode Island as follows:^[2]

The age/sex distribution and inferred attributions are:

• 1 white male over 16: Laban Hopkins
• 1 white female over 16: wife Tabitha Hopkins
• 1 white female under 16: daughter Susanna Hopkins

Residence

From her birth, Tabitha had lived in Scituate, Rhode Island.

She became a widow when her husband, Laban Hopkins died in 1781 in Scituate, Rhode Island, and she remained there until her death.

Death

Perhaps in Scituate, Rhode Island, Mrs. Tabitha Hopkins, widow, died sometime before her deceased father, Samuel Howland's land was sold in 1797 in Glocester, Rhode Island. The land sale recorded only her two surviving married daughters.

Land Records

Glocester Land Records, Book 16, page 16:

We, John Howland of Scituate, County of Providence, State of Rhode Island, Thomas Howland of Douglas, County of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, Caleb Howland of Clarendon, Rutland County, Vermont, Samuel Howland of sd Scituate, Rhobe Place and Samuel Luther, children of Samuel Luther late of Scituate deceased; Stephen Kimball, son of John Kimball of Glocester in sd County of Providence; Susanna Yates^[3] and Martha Aldrich^[3] both of sd Douglas, and being children and heirs at law to Samuel Howland late of sd Scituate deceased for and in consideration of twelve silver dollars to us in hand &c paid by William Hawkins of Glocester, aforesaid, gentleman, the receipt whereof &c forever quitclaim &c unto him the sd William Hawkins one certain small tract or lot of land in Glocester aforesaid, being all that same land which our ancestor, the sd Samuel Howland died seized of.

Signed September 4, 1797 and acknowledged at Glocester September 23, 1797 by John Howland alone before Zebee Hopkins, Justice of Peace.^[4]

Misidentification

In 1885, the work of Franklyn Howland misidentified Tabitha Howland as Caleb Howland as son of John Howland and Freelove Wood on page 86. Unfortunately, he misplaced her in an insignificant footnote with a good source on page 101, but strangely, he did not place her in the set of Samuel Howland’s children.^[5]

The discovery of Tabitha Howland's actual birth record in Scituate, Rhode Island disproves the existence of Caleb Howland. It is the result of a transcription error in his book. The existence of Caleb Howland is now disproven. See more information on Caleb Howland.

Sources

1. ↑ Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1650-1850. First Series. Births, Marriages, Deaths. A Family Register for the People, by James N. Arnold, Editor of the Narragansett Historical Register, Volume 3, Scituate, Part III. Providence, Rhode Island: Narragansett Historical Publishing Company, 1892, page 44.
2. ↑ 1774 Rhode Island Census. Glocester, Page 119.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Susanna Yates and Martha Aldrich were the married daughters of Tabitha (Howland) and Laban Hopkins.
4. ↑ Glocester Land Records, Book 16, page 16.
5. ↑ Howland, Franklyn, A Brief Genealogical and Biographical History of Arthur, Henry, and John Howland and Their Descendants, of the United States and Canada: Together with an Account of the Efforts Made in England to Learn of Their English Ancestry, Etc., New Bedford, Mass.: Howland, 1885, page 101.