Thomas Howlett, 10th Great Grandfather

May 21, 2013 — ancestry, Boston, Colonist, Thomas Howlett

Howlett Coat of Arms

Thomas Howlett arrived in America on the ship Hopewell in 1630 to live in Boston. He was a carpenter, and had skills as a surveyor.  He was active in church and military matters.

Thomas Howlett (1605 – 1678)
is my 10th great grandfather
Thomas Howlett (1638 – 1667)
son of Thomas Howlett
Mary HOWLETT (1664 – 1727)
daughter of Thomas Howlett
John Hazen (1687 – 1772)
son of Mary HOWLETT
Caleb Hazen (1720 – 1777)
son of John Hazen
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
daughter of Caleb Hazen
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Mercy Hazen
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

Misc. NotesFrom co. Suffolk, England. Removed Ipswich 1633. Deposed 1658, aged 52. Church member 1630.²⁹One of the first settlers in Agawam (Ipswich) 1632/33. Deputy from Ipswich 1635 and Topsfield 1665 and often employed in running lines and locating towns and farms.Ipswich, Massachusetts Deputy in 1635. Ensign of Ipswich Company under Captain Daniel Dennison, 3rd Regiment, Colonel John Endicott 1636.¹⁰²Thomas Howlett was twenty-five years old when he came to New England in 1630 aboard the ship “Hopewell” as part of Governor Winthrop’s Fleet. He was a carpenter by trade, with origins in South Elmham Parish of Suffolk County, East Anglia in England. He first settled in Boston, as did a majority of Winthrop colonists, and became a member of the First Church on August 27, 1630. In the spring of 1633 he married Alice French, daughter of Thomas and Susan (Riddlesdale) French, who apparently had emigrated to New England prior to her parents. She was a member of the First Church and was eventually dismissed on September 10, 1643 to the church in Ipswich as “Our sister Alice French ye wife of Thomas Howlet of Ipswich.”Although Howlett later settled in Topsfield where he spent the latter years of his life, he was one of the nine originals of John Winthrop Jr’s 1633 party settling the Indian village Agawam, which the next year became the town of Ipswich. He was sworn a freeman at Ipswich on March 4, 1633.In 1634 Ipswich granted Howlett, in partnership with John Manning and others, on the neck of land on which the town stood, two acres of meadow and two and a half acres of marsh between the town riger and the lands of William Sergient (probably Sargent) and John Newman. Added to this in 1635 was a house lot in the town, thirty acres of upland and ten of meadow at the head of Chebacco Creek and ten acres north of the town toward the Reedy marsh. In 1637 he purchased forty acres from John Perkins, Sr. His later acquired Topsfield holdings are described in his will.Thomas Howlett’s highest political office came to him as a young man, when, in 1635, he represented Ipswich in the General Court. he served on the Essex County Jury of Trials in 1654, 1657, and 1665 and on the Grand Jury in 1650, 1659, 1666, and 1667 and served as Selectman of Topsfield in 1661.In 1640 he was sergeant of the Ipswich military defense company and later became its ensign. In 1643 he, as Sergeant, and ten other militiamen were voted compensation by the town for their three days acting in defense of the Agawam Indians against their tribal enemies. In 1672 he became a Deacon of the Topsfield Church and his contribution of five pounds to the salary of Rev. Jeremiah Hubbard was the largest of those made.There were eight children of Howlett’s marriage with Alice — Sarah (1633/34-1700), John (1633/34-1674/75), alice (1636-1696), Thomas, Jr. (1637/34-1667), Mary (1641/42-1718), Nathaniel (1646-1658), William (1649/50-1718), and Samuel (1654/55-1719/20). On June 6, 1666, after the death of Alice he married Rebecca Smith, widow of Thomas Smith if Ipswich and Newbury, with his step-son, Thomas Smith, in 1671, choosing him as his guardian.Thomas Howlett died in Topsfield, Essex County on September 24, 1677.Military Was in Pequot War^{32, No. 74, pg. 120, 1920}Spouses

Misc. NotesProbably emigrated to America with her brother Thomas. Alice was dismissed from the Boston Church to Ipswich 16 Jun 1644.