John Dickinson and Elizabeth Howland

Contributed By

JOHN DICKINSON

1602 England

ELIZABETH HOWLAND

Plymouth, Mass.

Many volumes have been written, documenting and dramatizing the adventures of the Mayflower pilgrims because so many researchers have joined the effort to uncover the events of their lives. Stories of courage, high purpose and adventure could be written about most of our ancestors - if we would put forth the same effort in their behalf.

A Quaker Sea Captain.

The life of JOHN DICKINSON, a sea captain, who carried goods in his ship "Desire" between the colony of Plymouth and the various Long Island towns could yield many adventure-filled episodes, especially before his ship was captured by the French in 1653. John Dickinson had come to Boston from England in 1630, then located at Barnstable where he married, fathered several children, and then lost his wife to death. John Dickinson's lengthy ancestry is discussed elsewhere.

In Massachusetts, John undoubtedly observed the unjust persecution occurring against the Quakers at that time. Circumspect practices of the "Friends" heaped upon them ridicule, deprivation, injury and sometimes death from bigoted settlers in Massachusetts. Even those who transported them were fined. Did Captain Dickinson, seeing the injustice of their treatment, transport these outcasts with his ship? We know that, in time, he became converted to the Quaker faith.

Perhaps Captain Dickinson's discussion of the Quaker problem with John Howland, while trading furs at Kennebeck, was what influenced the latter's sympathies toward the Quakers.

Her Own Romantic Story could be told by ELIZABETH HOWLAND, who became Captain Dickinson's second wife. Born near 1632 at the original homestead on Leyden Street in Plymouth, she knew her pilgrim parents had given much for their religion, and she knew that they prized their freedom.

In October 1649 she had married Ephraim Hicks. By December of that year Ephraim had died, leaving Elizabeth Howland Hicks a widow. A year or so later, Elizabeth's hand was won by Captain John Dickinson, a man she may have admired for the courage he exhibited as he adhered to unfavored Quaker tenants. In June of 1651 they married, and like many Quaker couples, Elizabeth and John Dickinson left Massachusetts for Long Island where the climate was more friendly to the Quaker cause.

A "First" Colonial Real Estate Purchase.

In 1659 John Dickinson purchased land at Oyster Bay, Long Island, through an agent. This is spoken of as "the first sale of real estate in the colonies by a Real Estate Agent".

John and Elizabeth Dickinson had nine children at Oyster Bay, so they seem to have lived happily there for some time, if not "forever after". Hannah Dickinson, one of their daughters, is a Keeler "foremother."

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It is claimed by Wharton Dickinson that John Dickinson’s ancestry continues on record into England, at least until Johune ****nson or ****s-son (122230-35) if not to the Del **** family living in a Saxon farmhouse in Cumberland, England, “where two lines of the Roman wall met, separated by a ****, . . .from a time antecedent to the Norman Conquest”.

The records show a long line of landholders, merchants and magistrates from Johune, above, to WILLIAM DICKINSON of Leeds (1502), who built Bradley Hall where the above John Dickinson’s great grandfather, RICHARD DICKINSON, was born in 1521. Richard was a magistrate for South Staffordshire. His son, THOMAS DICKINSON (born in 1547) obtained the post of Chief Clerk of Pensions, Portsmouth Navy Yard. The wife of Thomas was Judith, daughter of the merchant and Alderman of Bristol, WILLIAM CASEY. WILLIAM DICKINSON and SARAH STACEY, daughter of SIR ROBERT STACEY, were parents of our Captain John Dickinson.

The foregoing Dickinsons married into such families as Bagnell of North Staffordshire, Kinge of Penkinridge, Danby (including Sir Christopher, Sir James, Sir Robert and Sir Thomas and their antecedents), a long line of Laughtons, de Swillington, Lambert, Cooper, Wrightson, Peers, de la Pole (a family of “great antiquity” of Ravenston and Hull), Robinson, and Clitheroe, all of whom are described, more or less, in the Dickinson Family record.

This History and information was copied from “Build Thee More Stately” by Daniel M. Keeler. (JHR 2002)