Josiah Howland - Temporary Draft Page

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This page is a temporary holding page for reworking the profile of Josiah Howland (1676-1718).

Once completed, it will be swapped into the current page as a complete replacement.

This page will link to the new supporting documentation page titled Josiah Howland documentation.

1 Biography
2 Research notes
3 Sources

Biography

Josiah Howland was born in Plymouth Colony, on 6 August 1676, to Jabez Howland and Bethia Thacher, making him a grandson of Mayflower passenger John Howland.^[1]^[2]

Less than a month before his wedding with Yetmercy, Josiah spent 106 pounds to purchase a townhouse with land in Bristol from Nathan Hayman, mariner.^[2]

Josiah married on 24 November 1709, in Barnstable, to Yetmercy Shove, born 7 November 1682, in Taunton, a daughter of George Shove and Hannah Bacon.^[1]^[2] There is some speculation that Josiah may have married earlier, to Mary Shove, a sister of Yetmercy. Details are covered in the Research notes section below.

Josiah Howland died about 7 or 8 PM Saturday on 8 February 1717/8, in Bristol, Plymouth Colony, after a three-day illness, and was buried at East Burial Ground, Bristol, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay (now Rhode Island).^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Josiah and Yetmercy produced the following children proven by birth records of Bristol, Bristol County, Massachusetts Bay:^[1]^[5]

Yetmercy Howland was born on 11 March 1712/3 in Bristol, Bristol County, Massachusetts Bay.^[1]^[6]
Josiah Howland was born on 9 April 1717 in Bristol, Bristol County, Massachusetts Bay. He was baptized on 8 May 1722. He died on 6 February 1748 in Bristol, Bristol County, Rhode Island.^[5]

Some resources indicate Josiah and Yetmercy were very private about their family affairs and did not report the births of most of their children, leading to conflicts if there were any additional children. Details are covered in the Research notes section below.

Research notes

Yetmercy name

Some of the resources spell the name of Josiah's wife as one word (Yetmercy) and others spell it as two (Yet Mercy). The research notes are written reflecting the form used by the reference being cited as much as possible but will default to Yetmercy with both sources referenced.

Marriage

The Mayflower Families Through Five Generations mentions Josiah having only a single marriage with Yetmercy.^[1]

However, there has been speculation that he had a prior marriage with Mary Shove, an older sister of Yetmercy.

The North Purchase Proprietors Records recorded, "8 Sept. 1711. Josiah Howland for his wives dew doth Pitch between the first ministry Lott and Briants first Lott."^[7] Note the use of the word "wives" is plural, and it indicates that Josiah Howland had been married to more than one of the daughters of Rev. George Shove. Elizabeth (Shove) Holloway and Sarah Shove were the two deceased daughters of Rev. George Shove, but Johanna (Shove) Howland and Yetmercy (Shove) Howland were the only two living daughters of Rev. George Shove at that time, so the first wife of Josiah Howland would have to have been Mary Shove.

However, the spelling of "wives" may also have been meant to represent a singular possessive "wife's" that was poorly spelled.

Mary Shove, age 11, and her younger sisters, Johanna, age 9, and Yetmercy Shove, age 5, were taken to the home of General John Walley, the brother of Rev. Thomas Walley, Jr., whose wife was their mother, Mrs. Hannah (Bacon) (Walley) Shove who died in 1685 in Taunton, Bristol County, Plymouth Colony. Gen. John Walley's residence was on the west side of High Street between Charles Street (now State Street) and King Street (now Church Street) in Bristol, Bristol County, Plymouth Colony, and they lived near proximity of the residence of the young Josiah Howland and his father, Jabez Howland at the corner of Charles Street (now State Street) and Hope Street.^[8] That explained how they knew Josiah Howland when they were playmates, and then Mary Shove became Josiah Howland's first sweetheart and fell in love with him.

Josiah Howland and Mary Shove were married before 12 June 1695 when Congregational Church of Bristol (Jabez Howland and his wife Bethiah had been in "foremost efforts" in the building of the Congregational Church in 1684)^[9] recorded the baptism of the unidentified Mrs. Howland,^[10] so they would have been approaching 19 years of age in 1695. The names of all newly admitted and baptized members of the congregation would be known and recorded, it must be concluded that the unidentified Mrs. Howland of baptismal record had to have been Mary Shove, the first wife of Josiah Howland. The fact is that no given name, maiden name, or husband's given name was included in the baptism of Mary Shove adds credence to the conclusion that information was being withheld from public access.

Mrs. Mary (Shove) Howland died sometime before her widower Josiah Howland married second, her younger sister, Yetmercy Shove in 1709.

In Bristol, Josiah Howland, at that time being the widower, bought the land from Nathan on 1 November 1709, so from Barnstable, his family could move to Bristol to live in the house by Hope Street, probably nearby King Street.^[11] Later, Josiah Howland, age 33, and Yetmercy Shove, age 27, were married by Mr. Russell on 24 November 1709, in Barnstable, Plymouth County, Massachusetts Bay.^[12]^[13]^[14] After that, from Barnstable, they returned to Bristol to bring his four children of his first wife, Mary (Shove) Howland, in the house on the land where he bought from Nathan Hayman.^[11] See more information below in the section of Land Records.

Children

In all of the references below, one of the four undocumented children is named Samuel Howland. With modern DNA resources, we have been able to prove that Samuel was not a son of Josiah or Yetmercy. More information is available in his profile.

The list of children found on page 333 in the 1885 work of Franklyn Howland^[9], includes four children of Mary, presumed to be the children of Josiah and Yet Mercy. However, the children are listed without mention of Josiah's having a first wife by the three genealogists William Thomas Davis (1883)^[15], Franklyn Howland (1885)^[9] and Charles Roscoe Howland (1946)^[2], and they were never appropriately established. The vital records were never made available to the public for the children of Josiah and Mary (Shove) Howland. Their reason for not recording their children was not explained in the resources.

On page 153, the work of William Thomas Davis (1883)^[15] listed four children in an assumed appropriate manner, but he thought there were no children born between Josiah's birth in 1717 and his father, Josiah's death in 1717, so he put all four children having unknown birth dates within the four years between daughter Yetmercy's birth in 1713 and son Josiah's birth in 1717.

On pages 332 and 333, the work of Franklyn Howland (1885)^[9] listed four children in the same order after Yetmercy's birth in 1713 and Josiah's birth in 1717.

The work of Charles Roscoe Howland (1946)^[2] listed all six children of Yet Mercy between the years of 1709 and 1717, and he put the births of Elizabeth and John before the birth of Yetmercy in 1713.

Probable/possible children of Josiah Howland and Mary Shove, born in possible order excluding Samuel:

Elizabeth Howland
John Howland
Patience Howland

The research shows that it is not known if those four [three] children did survive to an adult life because they would have shared in their grandfather, Jabez Howland's estate on 21 February 1711/12, but they did not. The vital records of Bristol are very complete and they are not recorded there. Perhaps, they were recorded there in Barnstable before Josiah Howland married Yetmercy Shove in Barnstable. Unfortunately, some records of Barnstable are fragmentary.

Land transactions and probate records

Numerous land transactions and probate records in Bristol county provide further evidence supporting Josiah Howland being the son of Jabez Howland, the husband of Yetmercy Shove, the son-in-law of George Shove, and a brother to Jabez, Samuel, and Joseph (all sons of Jabez Howland).

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Mary Shove is linked as an earlier wife of Josiah, which is not reflected in Mayflower Families. Should it be removed or marked as unconfirmed?
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