The Mayflower

Cindy Jacobson is a 10th generation descendent of Mayflower pilgrims.  Four of her ancestors were passengers on the Mayflower.  Her exact descent is shown below.  The following text is excerpted from the Farnsworth and Priday family histories.

The Tilley’s

John and Elizabeth Comyngs Tilley and their daughter, Elizabeth, came to the New World aboard the Mayflower.  John, a silk worker, was chosen as a member of an exploring party sent from the Mayflower in a small shallop to determine the best place to establish their colony.

John and his wife, Elizabeth, were among those who did not survive the cruel hardships of the first winter in the new land.  Elizabeth Tilley, their daughter, did survive; and in 1621 married John Howland, another Mayflower passenger. She died 21 December 1687 at Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts.

John Howland

John Howland, who came on the Mayflower as a manservant to John Carver, was described as “a plain good-hearted Christian.”

During the voyage to the New World, John had a very narrow escape from death while a terrible storm was raging at sea.  William Bradford describes it thus:  “Coming on deck, John was thrown into the sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of the top-sail halliards which hung overboard…but he kept his hold, though he was several fathoms under water, till he was hauled up by the rope and then with a boat hook helped into the ship and saved.  And though he was somewhat ill from it, he lived many years and became a profitable member of the Church and Commonwealth.”

When the Pilgrims established a trading post on the Kennebec River, near the present site of August, Maine, John Howland was placed in charge.  (See Dillon, The Pilgrims, [Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975] p. 58, 197)

In 1621 John married Elizabeth Tilley, another Mayflower passenger.  He died 23 February 1673.

President George Bush and First Lady Edith (Carrow) Roosevelt (Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt) are also descendents from John Howland.  The following link will take you to the Pilgrim John Howland Society home page:

http://www.pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org/

John Howland was the last surviving Mayflower pilgrim.  The house that he and Elizabeth lived in is the only existing house in Plymouth where Pilgrims actually lived.  Information on the house can be found at the following link:

http://www.pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org/howland_house.shtml

Cindy’s Descent from the Tilley’s and John Howland – Mayflower Ancestors:

John Tilley and wife, Elizabeth Comyngs (Mayflower passengers)
            /
Elizabeth Tilley who married John Howland (also Mayflower passengers)
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Lydia Howland (Brown)
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James Brown II
            /
William Brown
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Mary Brown (Follett)
            /
Jonathon Follett
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Sarah Ann Follett (Fullmer)
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Sarah Ann Fullmer (Priday)
            /
Thomas Samuel Priday, Jr.
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Josephine Chloe Priday (Weed)
            /
Cynthia Weed (Jacobson)

Our Mayflower Ancestors

The following is taken from the Farnsworth and Priday Family Histories, p. 173

“Pioneer ancestors have made glorious blessings available for us, but other, too, have sacrificed that we might enjoy ‘life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.’

Consider the Mayflower ancestors, these 120 souls literally risked their all to sail to this land, packed aboard the Mayflower for their nine-week voyage, floundering in fairly unknown waters, undertaking ‘to plant the first colony in the northern parts’ of this land ‘for the glory of God and advancement of Christian faith’, and thereby establishing for us a haven of freedom in what would eventually become these United State of America.

On November 11, 1620, before leaving the ship on New England’s rocky shores, they drew up and signed what we refer today as the ‘Mayflower Compact’, thus forming “civil body politic” and establishing a basis upon which a democracy could be built.  (See Cowie, The Pilgrim Fathers, (New York: G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1972), pp. 60-61.)

We, along with millions of others today, have the honor of descent from these stalwart passengers: John Tilley and his wife, Elizabeth Comyngs Tilley; their daughter Elizabeth Tilley who later married another passenger, John Howland.  May we ever be appreciate of their efforts as well as the efforts of all our ancestors who subsequently followed them to these shores!”