John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley – Mayflower Passengers

Earlier this week I received my notice from the Mayflower Society that an application had been approved for additional Mayflower passengers, so I thought I’d do a couple of quick pieces on the known and proven Mayflower Passenger lines I have.

The first one I was able to prove was approved in June of 2020 which was just before our trip to Plymouth to be there for what was supposed to be the 400 year celebration of the Mayflower. The Covid pandemic changed up many peoples plans, but we had booked the trip and were able to go, so we went.

John Howland and his wife Elizabeth Tilley, who sailed on the Mayflower with her parents, are my 11th Great Grandparents and go through my Great Grandma Gladys Hagerdon Anderson. The Hagerdon side of her tree has taken a lot of work, but her mother was a Livermore, and that family has been well traced and documented.

John was a servant of John Carver who was part of the Leiden Congregation. The Tilley family was also part of the Leiden Congregation.

There is so much I could say, but I won’t rekey things that are elsewhere. Wikipedia is an easy source for John Howland information. The John Howland Society is also a good place for information and I am a member there also. In Plymouth, the Jabez Howland home is still standing and is the only structure in Plymouth that an actual Mayflower Passenger lived in. It’s a fun tour to visit the house.

I’ll repeat this again with other Mayflower stories, but of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, only 57 survived that first winter. John Howland and his to be wife Elizabeth Tilley were among those 57. Elizabeth’s parents died that first winter as did her Uncle and Aunt. This graphic is really a powerful one to show how hard that winter was. I’ll put photos we took of the graphic in this story just in case the link breaks.

Proving lineage to John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley means that there are four people in the group of 102 that are directly related to me and the line looks like this (from Great Grandma Gladys)

Gladys Hagerdon Anderson
Luther Hagerdon and Lena Leota Livermore
Joseph W Livermore and Sylvia Hazelrig
Zalmon Livermore and Olive Caldwell Hall
Ashael Hall and Betsey Wood Ripley
Hezekiah Ripley and Priscialla Wood
Ephriam Wood and Sarah French
Ephriam Wood and Mary Lazell
Ephriam Wood and Susannah Howland
Isaac Howland and Elizabeth Vaughn
John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley

Elizabeth’s parents are John Tilley and Joan Hurst

It sounds like John and Elizabeth were very active and upstanding citizens. The Wikipedia article also notes that they founded one of the three largest Mayflower families. There are any number of “famous” people who tie their lineage to the Howland family – such fun!

Clicking on any of these images will make them larger, and you can choose to view in “full size” or download as needed.

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