I was listening to one of the new Come Follow Me podcasts where Rod Meldrum was interviewing Tim Ballard. If you haven’t seen it, you can at the end of this blog below. It is podcast 6.1. Tim Ballard also spoke at our FIRM Foundation Conference on Fri April 10th, 2020.
While listening to Tim, he told of a story I can’t remember ever hearing before, about a Pilgrim named John Howland, who landed at Plymouth Rock as a young unmarried man. His story is fascinating and it affects every member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Below I first share an rticle that Elder Ballard shares and then more history about John Howland. The Lord is definitely involved in our lives, each and every one of us individually. What a blessing.
John Howland has had over 2 million descendants in the United States.
Sarah Jane Weaver: What the story of John Howland taught President Ballard about expecting the Lord’s hand
By Sarah Jane Weaver Updated 2002 Church News
Standing at the birthplace of Joseph Smith in Sharon, Vermont, President M. Russell Ballard traced a pedigree chart of his ninth great-grandfather, John Howland — who lived during the 17th century.
President Ballard had spent the morning of Oct. 19 at the sacred site, addressing missionaries in the area and surveying the monument and other significant sites around the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial Visitors’ Center.
Then, standing near the pedigree chart that now hung on the wall of the visitors’ center, President Ballard explained why John Howland’s story mattered to him — and to each one of us.
A young, single man, John Howland was an indentured servant to John Carver. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean with other Pilgrims on the Mayflower in late 1620.
During that historic voyage, the crew and passengers of the Mayflower encountered many turbulent storms, which kept the passengers below deck. In the middle of one storm, John emerged and was swept overboard.
William Bradford, also a passenger on the Mayflower, reported:
“In these storms the winds were so fierce and the seas so high the Pilgrims were forced to remain below deck. And one of them John Howland came above and, with a roll of the ship, he was thrown into the sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of a rope that was trailing in the water and held on though he was several fathoms under water till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat-hook and other means got him into the ship again and his life was saved; and though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth.”
Speaking the following day in the DCU Center in Boston, Massachusetts, on Oct. 20, President Ballard continued the story.
“When the Mayflower finally arrived in the New World, they discovered they were more than 250 miles north of their intended location. Because of the lateness of the season and lack of supplies, they decided to stay there.
“When they explored their new home, they found land already cleared, corn supplies and an abandoned village whose inhabitants had died in the disease epidemic of 1616 to 1618.
“Later, a leader of one of the villages arrived in the struggling settlement to help the Pilgrims. They formed an alliance, and during the second fall after their arrival in the New World, 52 colonists and some 90 natives celebrated Plymouth’s first successful harvest — the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth.
“At the time, John Howland was not as famous as fellow passengers William Bradford, John Carver and Myles Standish. However, standing where we now stand, with nearly 400 years between us and these courageous Pilgrims, he may have had a greater impact on the history of the United States than any of them.”
President Ballard explained that four years after arriving in the New World, John married fellow Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley. From that union came 10 children and nearly 90 grandchildren.
Today, an estimated 5 million Americans trace their roots to John and Elizabeth, according to President Ballard.
Their descendants include three U.S. presidents — Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush; American poets Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and two influential 19th-century American religious leaders — the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith, explained President Ballard.
“Brothers and sisters, please look for the Lord’s hand in your lives and in the lives of your family.”
“Think about it for a moment — the existence of these political leaders, poets and prophets hinged on this one young man finding and grabbing a rope in the ocean and holding on tight to be saved,” he said. “It was a miracle!”
President Ballard said he sees the hand of the Lord in John Howland’s life. He recalled viewing earlier this year John Howland’s headstone in Plymouth.
John Howland’s headstone memorializes him as a “godly man” and “ancient professor in the ways of Christ.”
But President Ballard saw something much greater in the life of John Howland. It is something we can all see in our own lives as well.
“Brothers and sisters, please look for the Lord’s hand in your lives and in the lives of your family, as I do in the lives of my ancestors and family,” said President Ballard. “Expect it. Do not dismiss it. Do not relegate the experiences in your lives to coincidences. As you see the hand of the Lord in your lives, thank Him for it. Please record and share your stories. The more you recognize the Lord’s hand in your lives, the more you will see it in your lives today.” Source: Sarah Jane Weaver: What the story of John Howland taught President Ballard about expecting the Lord’s hand
Meet John Howland, a lucky Pilgrim who populated America with 2 million descendants
Associated Press Published: 8:39am, 27 Nov, 2015
The painting “Howland Overboard”, by artist Mike Haywood, depicts the young Pilgrim’s rescue after he fell overboard from the Mayflower.
John Howland may not be as famous as William Bradford, John Carver and Myles Standish, notable passengers on the Mayflower that landed in Massachusetts in 1620.
Yet Howland probably had a greater impact on the history of the United States than any of them. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are unaware that they owe their very existence to Howland as they celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday that commemorates a feast shared between Native Americans and the Pilgrims of the Mayflower.Howland boarded the ship as a servant of Carver, the first governor of the New Plymouth Colony, but he almost never made it to the New World. He fell overboard in the middle of the Atlantic during a gale but grabbed a trailing rope and was hauled back aboard by sailors using boat hooks. His remarkable story is the subject of a new children’s book, The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, or John Howland’s Good Fortune, by Irish illustrator and author P.J. Lynch.
Cover art for “The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, or John Howland’s Good Fortune” by Irish illustrator P.J. Lynch. Photo: Associated Press
Howland and his eventual wife, fellow Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley, had 10 children and more than 80 grandchildren. Now, an estimated 2 million Americans can trace their roots to him.
Howland’s direct descendants include three presidents — Franklin Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush — as well as former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin; poets Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; actors Alec Baldwin, Humphrey Bogart, and Christopher Lloyd; Mormon church founder Joseph Smith; and child care guru Dr Benjamin Spock.
“The idea that the existence of all these people hinged on that one guy grabbing a rope in the ocean and holding on tight totally caught my imagination,” Lynch said in a phone interview from his Dublin home. “Many of these people have made America what it is.”SCMP TODAY: INTL EDITION NEWSLETTERGet updates direct to your inboxSUBSCRIBEBy registering, you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy
There are so many Howland descendants that they have their own club — The Pilgrim John Howland Society — with about 1,200 members.
John Howland’s gravestone in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Photo: Pilgrim John Howland Society
Gail Adams, a Howland descendant and editor of the society’s publication, The Howland Quarterly, was thrilled when she first found out about her lineage two decades ago.
“To think, if he hadn’t made it, I wouldn’t even be here,” she said from her home in Virginia.
Lynch developed an interest in the story of the Pilgrims and Howland when he read Nathaniel Philbrick’s book, Mayflower. It was mostly new to him because he hadn’t gone to school in the US, where the story of the Pilgrims is taught to every child.
He acknowledges his book — written in the first person from Howland’s point of view — isn’t a 100 per cent accurate account, and he has taken some liberties in telling and illustrating the story. For example, Howland was actually a young man on the Mayflower trip, not a boy as the book title suggests.
But that’s OK with the experts — and Howland’s very large extended family.
“He did a great job on it,” said Richard Pickering, deputy executive director of Plimoth Plantation, the living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that preserves the story of the Pilgrims. “There is very little documentation about Howland’s early years, but Lynch imagines them beautifully.”
“He’s right on,” Adams said.
The book even describes the beginnings of a romance between Howland and Tilley, which isn’t so farfetched, Adams said.
Tilley was left an orphan after the first winter in Plymouth yet chose to stay even though she had family in England and her best friend returned.
“My theory — no proof — is that when handsome John fell overboard and had to be nursed back to health, she was smitten,” Adams said. Source:
Watch Podcast #6.1 below as Rod Meldrum interviews Tim Ballard. Tim speaks about John Howland about 75% into the video.
In Tim Ballard’s own words, hear about his newest book titled, “Pilgrim Hypothesis”
As you can see by the Pedigree chart below, Joseph Smith is a direct descendant of John and Elizabeth Howland through their oldest son named John. Emma Smith is a direct Descendant of John and Elizabeth Howland through their 2nd oldest daughter, Hope.
I, Rian Nelson just found out yesterday May 29th, 2020 that John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley are my 10th great grand parents through their oldest daughter Desire. That is unbelievable. I am so humbled to know who my ancestors are. This gives me a greater desire in this life to share the gospel with others. I was led to this information from a good friend named Vicki Darais who has a mother with the name Nelson. She gave me the information and I had my Sister Lori Nelson Merritt look up our genealogy. It is amazing what she found. What is interesting is that I am the 10th great grand son of John Howland through my Tueller and Dustin line, not through my Nelson line.
Elizabeth Tilley came on the Mayflower at age 7 with her parents John Tilley and Joan Hurst. John and Joan Tilley died shortly after arriving in America. Elizabeth was the only one of their 5 children to come with them on the Mayflower. At age 16 Elizabeth Tilley married John Howland who had been saved at sea. Their first daughter Desire Howland (1625-1683) married Captain John Gorham Sr. (1619-1676) who was later killed during King Philip’s War, which was also the First Indian War. They are my 9th great grand parents.
