“Thank Goodness for A Good Grip!”

by Kathleen MacLeod Hanzeli

What do Alec Baldwin and his brothers, Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Bush, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Chevy Chase, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Christopher Lloyd, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sarah Palin, Edith Roosevelt (Mrs. Theodore), Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lillian Russell, Joseph Smith and Dr. Benjamin Spock have in common?  They all descend from the same ancestor who landed on these shores on 6 September 1620, on the bark Mayflower.  Most of us can claim descent from a Mayflower traveler, but the above person is unique and I didn’t know he existed until one day recently, my eleven year old grandson said to me, “Nana, my friend from school’s ancestor fell off of the Mayflower!”

My first instinct was to respond, “What?  No one fell off the Mayflower.  If he had, he’d be dead and have no descendants.”  But with a little research, I discovered that the story was true, and my grandson can claim a good friend as a descendent among the notables above, all because this voyager fell off the boat - and lived!

Our survivor’s name is John Howland, a name not usually associated with the illustrious people with whom most of us are familiar.  John was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England around 1592, the son of Henry and Margaret Howland.  He was an indentured servant and possible cousin of Mayflower passenger John Carver.  Mr. Howland later became Mr. Carver’s executive assistant and personal secretary.  Mr. Carver is credited with the writing of the Mayflower Compact and was its first signer.  He became the first governor of the Plymouth Colony.

“Howland Overboard” by Mike Haywood

John Howland fell off the Mayflower in the middle of the Atlantic during a gale.  He went outside to get a breath of fresh air when the ship rolled suddenly, knocking him overboard.  He was able to grab the topsail halyards (a rope used for raising and lowering a sail, spar, flag, or yard on a sailing ship) and hang on until he was hauled to safety by sailors using boat hooks.

It’s a good thing he had good hands as John went on to achieve great things himself.  He eventually worked off his indenture and was involved in the business of the colony, being one of the Compact signers himself, and which included the making of a treaty between the colonists and Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe.  He became the head of the Carver family when John Carver and his wife died in the Spring of 1620-21 after surviving the first terrible winter in America.  He was granted land and served as selectman, assistant and deputy governor, surveyor of highways and a member of the fur committee.  He explored the Kennebec River in present day Maine with Edward Winslow, looking for fur trading sites and natural resources and was actively involved in the fur trade of the day.

John Howland married Elizabeth Tilley, who was born in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England.  Her baptism is recorded in August 1607.  She and her parents, John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley were also passengers on the Mayflower and they died during the first winter of 1620 - 21.  Elizabeth was taken in by the Carver family and when John Carver and his wife, Katherine, died, John Howland made Elizabeth his ward.  They were married in 1623 - 24.  John and Elizabeth had ten children and 88 grandchildren.  More Americans can trace their roots to John and Elizabeth than to any other of the first Pilgrims.

John died on 23 February 1672-73 at about age 80 and is presumed to be buried on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  He outlived all the other male Mayflower passengers except for George Soule (d. 1679), John Alden (d. 1687) and John Cooke, (d. 1693).  Elizabeth died 21 or 22 December 1687 at the home of her daughter, Lydia Brown, in Swansea Massachusetts and is buried in East Providence, Rhode Island.

Today, approximately two million people can thank John for his good grip, without which they would not be able to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with their families.  His descendants even have their own club, “The Pilgrim John Howland Society,” (https://pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org), based in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which has about 1,200 members.  They publish a quarterly, “The Howland Quarterly.”  There is a stone memorial marking the spot of John and Elizabeth’s homesite in rocky Nook, North of Plymouth, land which the society now owns.  There have been ongoing archeological digs during recent summers.

Irish author and illustrator P. J. Lynch was so taken by John Howland’s story that he wrote a children’s book called The Boy Who Fell off the Mayflower, or John Howland’s Good Fortune, by Candlewick Press, 2015, available on amazon.com for $14.89 hardcover.  Mr. Lynch is quoted, “The idea that the existence of all these people hinged on that one guy grabbing a rope in the ocean and holding on tight totally caught my imagination.  Many of these people have made America what it is.”  There are numerous other books about John Howland should you wish to read further.  Who knows?  Maybe you are one of his descendants!

by Kathleen MacLeod Hanzeli

© 2019

Sources:

Public Broadcasting System:  “American Experience”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw77BMTOAp0

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howland

The Boy Who Fell off the Mayflower:  by P. J. Lynch, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/258436/the-boy-who-fell-off-the-mayflower-or-john-howlands-good-fortune-by-pj-lynch/9780763665845/

Associated Press, 26 November 2015:  http://accesswdun.com/print/2015/11/352412