Elizabeth TILLEY

Elizabeth TILLEY

Female 1607 - 1687  (~ 80 years)

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  • Name Elizabeth TILLEY  [2, 3, 4, 5, 6
    • When the Mayflower set sail for the new world in 120, one of the passengers was a thirteen-year-old teenager, Elizabeth Tilley. The daughter of John and Joan (Hurst) (Rogers) Tilley, Elizabeth was baptized at Henlow, Bedfordshire, England, on 30 August 1607. She died at Swansea, Massachusetts 22 December 1687, at the age of 80. Throughout the seasons of her life, Elizabeth tilley was a first person witness and participant in the settlement of what came to become known as New England and the United States of America...

      Sadly Elizabeth Tilley's parents did not survive the first winter. Historians believe that she subsequently went to live with John Carver and his wife, and it is with this family that John Howland was employed as a servant. However, John Carver died the first spring and his wife, Katherine, died the first summer and so this apparently left John Howland in charge of the Carver household. the Carvers' children died in Leiden and "Howland may have inherited at least a portion of Carver's estate. In 1624 he was considered the head of what was once the Carver household when he was granted an acre for each member of the household including himself, Elizabeth Tilley, Desire Minter and a boy named William Latham."

      The exact marriage date of Elizabeth Tilley to John Howland is unknown. However, the Pilgrim John Howland Society states that,"...in the Division of Cattle in 1627 they were married with two children, Desire and John. If Desire was born in 1624 or 1625 it seems John and Elizabeth were married in March 1623 when Elizabeth was almost 16." John Howland was approximately 15 years her senior based on his date of death at age 80. Their ten children included six daughters and four sons: Desire, John, Jabez, Hope, Elizabeth, Lydia, Ruth, Hannah, Joseph and Isaac. Using an estimated marriage date of 1623, John Howland cared and provided for his then "teenage wife" for approximately 49 years.

      With so little written about Elizabeth Tilley, a review of John Howland's record adds to what can be surmised about her --Elizabeth was John's able partner for life. He took an active role in Plymouth's affairs and became a prominent society member. Also, John Howland was one of the "Undertakers" who assumed the debt of the colony and was in charge of the Plymouth Colony trading post at Cushnoc on the Kennebec River, and he also served as Assistant to the Governor and participated in the founding of the First Parish Church in Plymouth.

      The first house of Elizabeth and John Howland was located on the north side of Leiden Street in Plymouth. A reproduction of this first dwelling can be found at Plimoth Plantation....

      The place that was to become their home for many years was the farm known as Rocky Nook. "This place" (now in the village of Kingston) 'we had a great liking to plant in, but it was so far from our fishing our principal profit and so encompassed with woods that we should be in much danger of the savages, and our number being so little and so much ground to clear,' that they wisely decided to settle on the high cleared lands of the present town of Plymouth, 'so near the sea, so well provided with fresh water, and so fortunately protected against Indian attacks.'" In 1637/8 John Howland acquired three acres of land, a house, barn, out buildings and five acres of adjoining meadow, Rocky Nook Farm. It appears that three of their ten children were born there...

      Information varies with regard to the widow Elizabeth Howland leaving Rocky Nook. However, it is known that she never remarried and went on to live with two of her children. It appears she was in residence with her son, Jabez Howland, in Plymouth from 1674 until his house was sold in 1680. It was then that Elizabeth went to Swansea to live with her daughter, Lydia (Howland) Brown. Sadly the Howlands beloved Rocky Nook Homestead was burned in 1675 during the King Philip's War.....

      While it isn't known how Elizabeth Tilley Howland occupied herself following the death of her husband, there are several interesting articles on the website of the Pilgrim John Howland Society. One article indicates that she kept busy with her numerous grandchildren. Elizabeth's admonition to her children in her Last Will and testament reveals her love of God and family: "I give & commit my soule unto Almighty God my Savior & Redeemer....It is my Will & Charge to all my Children that they walke in ye Feare of ye Lord, and in Love and peace toward each other."

      Article written by Kathleen M. (Kathy) Myers [1]
    Birth Henlow, Bedfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Christening 30 Aug 1607  Henlow, Bedfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 6
    Gender Female 
    Will 17 Dec 1686  [2
    Will Proved Between 10 Jan 1687 and 1688  [2
    Death 22 Dec 1687  Swansea, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2, 4, 6
    Burial Brown Lot, Little Neck Cemetery, Riverside, Rhode Island Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I57013  Main Tree
    Last Modified 13 May 2021 

    Father John TILLEY,   c. 19 Dec 1571, Henlow, Bedfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Between 11 Jan and 10 Apr 1621, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Relationship Birth 
    Mother Joan HURST,   c. 13 Mar 1567, Henlow, Bedford, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Between 11 Jan and 10 Apr 1621, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Relationship Birth 
    Marriage 20 Sep 1596  Henlow, Bedford, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Family ID F07220  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family John HOWLAND,   b. Bef 1592, Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 23 Feb 1673, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 81 years) 
    Marriage 25 Mar 1623  Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Children 
     1. Desire HOWLAND,   b. Bef 1625, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Oct 1683, Barnstable, Barnstaple Co.,, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 58 years)  [Birth]
     2. John Joseph HOWLAND,   b. 24 Apr 1627, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Aft 18 May 1699, Barnstable, Barnstable Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 72 years)  [Birth]
     3. Hope HOWLAND,   b. 30 Aug 1629, Plymouth, Plymouth Co., Massachsetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 08 Jan 1683/4, Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 54 years)  [Birth]
     4. Elizabeth HOWLAND,   b. Bef 1631   d. 1691, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 60 years)  [Birth]
     5. Lydia HOWLAND,   b. Abt 1633   d. 11 Jan 1710/1 (Age 78 years)  [Birth]
    +6. Hannah HOWLAND,   b. Abt 1637, Maine Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1705, Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 68 years)  [Birth]
     7. Joseph HOWLAND,   b. Abt 1640, Kingston, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Jan 1703/4, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 64 years)  [Birth]
     8. Jabez HOWLAND,   b. 1644, Rocky Nook, Kingston, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Between 14 May 1708 and 6 Feb 1712, Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 64 years)  [Birth]
    +9. Ruth HOWLAND,   b. Abt 1646, Kingston, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Between 29 May 1672 and 16 Oct 1679 (Age 26 years)  [Birth]
     10. Isaac HOWLAND,   b. 15 Nov 1649, Kingston, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 09 Mar 1723/4, Middleboro, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 74 years)  [Birth]
    Family ID F07230  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 13 May 2021 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - - Henlow, Bedfordshire, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsChristening - 30 Aug 1607 - Henlow, Bedfordshire, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBurial - - Brown Lot, Little Neck Cemetery, Riverside, Rhode Island Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Headstones
    Elizabeth Tilley Howland Headstone
    Elizabeth Tilley Howland Headstone
    Original mayflower Passenger, wife of of John Howland and daughter of John tilley and Joan Hurst. She is buried in the Ancient Little Neck Cemetery in East Providence, Providence Co., Rhode Island.

    Maintained by: Find A Grave
    Originally Created by: Ronald Keyes
    Photo Added by: Cherie lynn

  • Sources 
    1. [S5370] The Mayflower Quarterly - September 2012, Vol. 78 No. 3.

    2. [S02658] Mayflower Increasings 2nd Edition by Susan E. Roser.

    3. [S00012] E. Glenn Denison, "Denison Genealogy" Ancestors and Descendants of Captain George Denison, (Name: Name: Gateway Press, Inc. Baltimore 1993;;), 63-13712.

    4. [S00094] S. Whitney Phoenix, "The Whitney Family of Connecticut and its Affiliations; being an Attempt to trace the Descendants, as well in the Female as the Male Lines, of Henry Whitney, from 1649 to 1878" , (Privately Printed, New York - 1878).

    5. [S2670] Helen Hester King, B.S and Kinetta Ainsworth Daniels, Some Descendants of Captain John Gorham of Plymouth Colony in New York State and the Western Reserve.

    6. [S3569] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration - Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol. II.