Arthur Howland - 10th great grandfather: Robison and Blythe Genealogy

Arthur Howland - 10th great grandfather

According to William Howland in The Howlands in America, all the Howlands in America can trace their ancestral lineage to the three sons of Henry and Margaret (Aires) Howland of Fen Stanton, Huntingdonshire, England: John Howland, who came to this country in the Mayflower in 1620, and his two brothers, Arthur and Henry Howland, who arrived probably about 1623-24. My 10th great grandfather was Arthur Howland. He married Margaret Reed, a widow whose parentage we do not know. Arthur was buried in Marshfield, MA 30 October 1675, and Margaret was buried in Marshfield, 22 June 1683.

Arthur Howland, the oldest of the three brothers, we believe came to Plymouth with his brother, Henry, where he was a planter, yeoman, freeman, and Quaker. He was of Marshfield, MA by 1643, having been granted fifty acres of land and some meadow there at North River in 1640. He bought an additional three hundred acres of land for 21 pounds sterling, 13 pounds in money and the balance in corn and cattle and spent the rest of his life in Marshfield.

Arthur accepted the doctrines of the Society of Friends and was fined many times for "Pmiting of a Quaker's meeting in his house." He refused to pay the fines and was committed to jail. He and his wife were fined ten shillings for absenting themselves from "publicke worship" in 1658, but "in respect with his age and low condition" of health, he was acquitted. Arthur was called before the Plymouth court on 22 Dec 1657 'to answer for entertaining a Quaker, and suffering and inviting sundry to hear said Quaker.' In 1669, he was arrested for neglecting to pay his minister-tax; due to his advanced age and low estate he was excused from paying.

Notwithstanding our forefathers have the name of being very strict in their religious observances and in their punishments of crime, they were mild and liberal in comparison to some of their neighboring colonies here and in other states. Massachusetts Bay (gov. Winthrop's) Colony, around Boston and vicinity, made thirteen crimes punishable by death. Virginia Colony, seventeen and in the latter colony, a man for believing and advocating Unitarianism was punishable by death, and the same penalty was enforced upon Unitarians in England in King James's time; and even later in the days of Queen Elizabeth, pious men were hanged for advocating Congregationalism (Orthodoxy). Maryland punished believers and advocates in Unitarianism with death. Though our Forefathers' faith was good and strong, they laid down no formal creed to guide them. The Old Colony had but five classes of crime to be punished by death, and only tow were ever enforced. Our Forefathers, unlike the Puritans of Boston, Salem, etc., never hung a witch. The Quakers, if non-residents, were treated rather harshly. Arthur Howland, a resident of Marshfield, was liberal in his views, and sympathized with the Quakers. About the year, 1657, according to Goodwin, author of the Pilgrim Republic, "John Philips, the constable going to Arthur Howland's house in Marshfield to leave a summons, saw a non-resident Quaker preacher, Robert Tuchin, and arrested him. Howland interferred and ejected the constable from his house declaring, as the latter certified, that he would have "a sword or gun in the belly of him." Two sons of John Rogers (of the Mayflower) refused to aid the constable. When the official returned with a poss‚, Tuchin had escaped. Howland was forthwith taken to Alden's house and tried before Collier, alden and Josiah Winslow, who ordered him to give bons to the Gerneral Court; he refusing to furnish bail, they put him in charge of the Colony's Marshal, Lieutenant Nash, who lived near. He was eventually fined œ5 for resisting the officer. Soon after, he sent the court an indignant protest against Anti-Quaker measures, and was then arrested for contempt. The court decided that as his estate would not bear further fines, and he was too old and infirm to be whipped, he be released in acknowledgment of error, which was done."

A romantic case is recorded concerning the son of this same Arthur Howland of Marshfield. It was in 1660 when Thomas Prence was Governor of the Colony, and concerned his daughter. "The tolerant course of the elder Arthur Howland toward Quakers had earned the ill will of Gov. Prence, and when in 1660 he found Arthur Howland, Jr., had woed his daughter Elizabeth, he had the swain before the General court, where he was fined œ5 because he had disorderly and unrighteously endeavored to obtain the affections of Mistress Elizabeth Prence, and was put under a bond of œ50 to refrain and desist. But Prence, like Canute, was unable to control the forces of nature. This action was in July, but before the next spring the imperious Governor seems to have been forced to capitulate, for Arthur, Jr., and Elizabeth were united and in the course of events there was a Thomas Howland and a Prence Howland. Governor Prence's friend and neighbor, Constant Southworth, had a like experience with his daughter Elizabeth. In his will, 1679, he gave her "My next best bed and furniture, with my wife's best bed, provided she do not marry Wm. Fobes, but if she do, then to have 5s." The bed and adjuncts were then worth thirty times 5s, for a fine bed was thought a goodly bequest; but it was the grand old story; Elizabeth chose to have 5s with William, to two beds without him, and provided her own beds."

Attendance at church was made compulsory in the Colony. "Arthur Howland and sife of Marshfield, who at divers times seem to have caused the officers of the Colony some uneasiness were fined for not attending public worship, and he was also arrested for neglecting his minister's tax; in respect to his age, however, he was excused till further notice. "In 1666 Wm. Thomas, 2nd, charged Pastor Arnold of Marshfield with teaching rank blasphemy, and the General Court on examining the sermon declared it pure orthodoxy, and censuring Mr. Thomas for great arrogancy, cautioned him to carry more soberly." Some of the women of Marshfield were pugnacious in Pilgrim days, and some were unruly, for in 1666 we find Constable Ford of Marshfield having arrested Widow Naomi Sylvester, Ford was attacked; and she was rescued. As a penalty their brother, William, was ordered to pay Ford œ2." It does not appear what the nature of the first offence was, and it does not follow that the offence would have been at all criminal in our time; but in Pilgrim days, as we have already seen, it was made a crime to harbor a non-resident Quaker, and also non attendance to church. It was a law in the Colony that a man should be indicted for swearing, lying and making seditious speeches, etc. "Thomas Ewer was indicted for seditious speeches, to lie neck and heels at the court's will, but being infirm was pardoned and warned that for the next offense he would be banished from the Colony." "Ralph Smith for lying about seeing a shale, fined 20s." "Thomas Lucas for swearing," sentenced to be put in the stocks. In 1651 John Rogers of Marshfield was fined 5s for vilifying the ministry. A Mr. Winter, who in 1660 was constable of Marshfield, was in 1638 fined 10s for publishing himself to Jane Cooper, contrary to order and custom; he was also excommunicated from the church at Scituate. The next year, on the charge of antenuptial intimacy, Winter was sentenced to be whipped at the post, at the Governor's discretion, and his wife to be whipped at the cart's tail through the street."

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