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Sunday, February 10, 2019

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2019 WEEK 7: JOHN HOWARD OF BRIDGEWATER, MA.. PT1

My 8x great grandfather John Howard was another of the founding fathers of Bridgewater and West Bridgewater. In 1903 a man named Heman Howard, another of John Howard's descendants, wrote a family history and began with this:

JOHN HOWARD, with his brother George, came from England, and settled in Duxbury. He was among those who were able to bear arms there in 1643. He was about fifteen years old when he came to Duxbury. He lived in the family of Capt. Miles Standish, who came from Shorely, Lancashire, England. He soon removed to Bridgewater, and was one of the original settlers and proprietors of that town. Judge Mitchell, in his history of Bridgewater, says that John Howard, the first Howard to settle in Bridgewater, was a man of much influence in the new plantation.

In 1645 his name appears as one of the fifty-four original proprietors of the grant of land afterward known as Bridgewater. In 1656 he was one of the two surveyors of highways for his town. In 1657 he had taken the Freeman's oath. He was one of the fourteen men whose allotment of land was in the easterly part of the grant. He was one of the first military officers, and was appointed Ensign, Sept. 27, 1664. In May, 1676, during King Philip's War, Ensign John Howard, with twenty others, fought with some Indians and took seventeen of them alive with much plunder, and all returned without serious injury. June 5, 1678, he was a deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts; also on the same date was appointed a selectman of his town. In 1683 he, with Thomas Hayward, was a representative to the General Court. Oct. 2, 1689, he was promoted, and received his commission as a lieutenant. Mr. Howard was a carpenter by trade. He spelled his name Haward, and so did his descendants until after 1700. He m. Martha, a dau. of Thomas Hayward, one of the original proprietors of Bridgewater, who came on the ship Hercules, in 1635, from Sandwich, County of Kent, England, with five children and three brothers.


Mr. Howard lived in a house which he built near the first meeting house. It stood directly north of the house where B. B. Howard now lives, on the corner of Howard and River streets. The accompanying picture shows the spot of ground as it now appears; the well curb seen in the picture is over the well that was used with Mr. Howard's house. This was the first public house in Bridgewater, as Mr. Howard was licensed to keep an ordinary or tavern, in 1670, at this place. It would probably be difficult to find, in the history of all the taverns that have existed in Massachusetts, another of which it can be said, as Judge Mitchell says of this original Howard House, that " He (John Howard), was licensed to keep an ordinary or tavern, as early as 1670, and it is remarkable that a public house has been kept there by his descendants ever since, till within a few years." This house was owned and managed by John Howard and his direct descendants for a period of 151 years. John Howard opened the tavern in 1670, and kept it 30 years, until his death in 1700. His oldest son, John, then became proprietor, conducting it 26 years, until 1726. His son, Maj. Edward, was proprietor from that date to 1771, for 45 years. His son, Col. Edward, owned and conducted the house for 38 years, from 1771 to 1809, when he d. Then his widow and son, Capt. Benjamin Beal Howard, kept the house open 12 years, until 1821. The house was taken down in 1838. A list of the distinguished guests of this tavern, could we know their names, would make exceeding interesting reading. Without doubt, one of the early distinguished visitors was Mary (Chilton) Winslow, (the first lady who came on shore from the Mayflower), who was grandmother of the wife of the second proprietor, John Howard. An occasional guest was John Reed, D. D., who was a member of congress during Washington's administration. Oakes Angier, a young lawyer, Hon. William Baylies and Judge Howard, were other prominent and frequent visitors. Lieut. Howard d. in 1700. His property was appraised in October, the next year. It consisted of about 450 acres of land, and his estate was valued at about 840 pounds. Following is a copy of the division of his estate and of that of his widow, who d. before 1703
 pp2-3

The Howard Genealogy: Descendants of John Howard of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, from 1643 to 1903 Standard printing Company, Brockton, Ma  1903

To be continued.

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