Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 37 (part 1)

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, focusing on Southworth Allen Howland Jr. and his family line. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I resume my series “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who” featuring Southworth Allen Howland Jr. (1800-1882), a successful publisher as well as the proprietor of the largest bookstore and stationer’s shop in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Southworth married Esther Allen (1801-1860), who authored her own recipe book entitled The American Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book.

Southworth Allen Howland Jr. was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland through both his great grandparents, Job Howland and Hannah Jenkins.

Lineage:

• John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley.
• John Howland and Mary Lee, daughter of Robert and Mary (Atwood) Lee.
• John Howland and Mary Crocker, daughter of Deacon Job and Hannah (Taylor) Crocker.
• Job Howland and Hannah Jenkins, daughter of Benjamin and Mehitable (Blish) Jenkins. Benjamin is the son of Joseph and Lydia (Howland) Jenkins. Lydia is the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Southworth) Howland. Joseph is the son of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley.
• Southworth Allen Howland Sr. and Esther Allen, daughter of Captain William and Betsey (Barnes) Allen. William married 2nd Mary “Polly” Ware, daughter of Dr. Samuel and Bethiah (Metcalf) Avery Ware.
• Southworth Allen Howland married Esther Allen, daughter of Capt. William and Betsey (Holmes) Allen.

Here is an obituary for Southworth Allen Howland Jr. published in the Worcester Daily Spy that details some of his lineage and life achievements.

This article reports:

Southworth Allen Howland, one of the few survivors of the businessmen of 60 years ago in Worcester, died Saturday evening at his residence on Summer Street, aged 82 years. He was born in West Brookfield September 11, 1800, son of Southworth Howland, who died in Worcester in 1853. Southworth A. was of the sixth generation in descent from John Howland, one of the Pilgrims who came over in the Mayflower 1620, he being then 28 years of age, and he became one of the most active and useful of the colonists. Some two years after landing he married Elizabeth Tilley, whose parents died soon after landing leaving their only daughter in [the] charge of Gov. [John] Carver.

The first John Howland had ten children, of whom John, Jr., the oldest, married Mary Lee, and was one of the earliest settlers in Barnstable.

The latter’s youngest son, John, of the third generation, born December 31, 1674, married for his second wife Mary Crocker, and they had two sons, of whom Job, the youngest, born June 17, 1726, married [on] Dec. 6, 1753, Hannah Jenkins, and had 11 children. Their six sons, who grew up in West Barnstable, were all carpenters, and all removed from the cape. The fifth of these sons, Southworth, born March 29, 1775, married Esther Allen of West Brookfield, where he settled about 1798. Their oldest son was Southworth A. Howland, the former well-known bookseller and book publisher in this city, whose decease is mentioned above. He learned the book binder’s trade of Joseph Avery in Plymouth, and came to Worcester in the fall of 1821, when he opened a bookstore and bindery in company with the late Enos Dorr, under the well-remembered firm name of Dorr & Howland, in a store now comprising the north end of the Exchange Hotel building, removing in 1828 to a store in “Goddard’s Row,” where Lewis Barnard’s block of stores now stands.

Stay tuned for more on Southworth and his family, including daughter Esther Allen Howland, aka “Mother of the American Valentine.”

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial

Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.