Elizabeth Tilley - Mayflower Passenger

Elizabeth Tilley came over on the Mayflower with her parents. She was 13 at the time and the daughter of John Tilley, a silk worker. Her parents died at Plymouth during the first winter.

The following Reference is from "Ancestor and Descendants of Paul Pratt of New Vineyard, Maine". Written by Joan Pratt and Alice Stewart. Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland's parents died in Plymouth during the first winter. It is believed that her mother was Elizabeth Comyings; other sources state that she bore the Dutch name of Bridget Van De Veldt. Elizabeth Howland made her will on 17 December 1686, declaring that she was 79 years of age. She divided her personal property among her children and grandchildren. Included in the bequests were several books, mostly of a religious nature, some of which had belonged to her husband. It appears that Elizabeth was able to read and to write her name, an accomplishment shared by few women in the early colonies. Ann R. Marble, in her "Women Who Came in the Mayflower", states that Elizabeth "excelled in her associates among the girls of Plymouth in one way-she could write her name quite well......possibly taught by her husband.....". If this were the case, one wonders why she signed her will with her mark EH, unless by reason of old age or infirmity. She died at the home of her daughter, Lydia Brown.

In her will dated 12/17/1686, Elizabeth named her sons, John, Jabez, Joseph and Issac, her son-in-law James Browne, her surviving daughters Lydia, Elizabeth and Hannah, her granddaughters Elizabeth Bursley, Dorothy Browne and Desire Cushman, and her grandsons Nathaniel Howland and James and Jabez Browne. She charged her children to "walke in ye Fear of ye Lord, and in love and peace toward each other."

Elizabeth was the only child of her parents five children that came to America with them. At the time of her marriage she was not quite sixteen years of age.