52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #39 Elizabeth Howland

My maternal 8th great grandmother Elizabeth Howland was born around 1640 either in Sandwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts or in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Her father was Henry Howland and her mother's name was Mary (some family trees on ancestry.com have Mary's maiden name as Newland).

Elizabeth's father Henry was a brother of John Howland who fell overboard from the Mayflower but was rescued. Americanancestors.org lists Elizabeth's siblings as Abigail, Zoeth, Samuel, Mary, Sarah, and Joseph. This website also says that Henry "was a Quaker sympathizer and had allowed religious meetings in his house, which was against the law."

Elizabeth married Jedediah Allen around 1668. Their son Henry (b. 1679/80) is my 7th great grandfather and the father of Exercise Allen, my 6th great grandmother. I've seen several lists of the children of Elizabeth and Jedediah. For example, on capecodgenes.com for Elizabeth Howland (click on Elizabeth's name to see the information about her and Jedediah). Besides Henry, the following children are listed on that website: Elizabeth, Ephraim, Elisha "Eliashib," Nathan, Judah, Esther, Ralph, Benjamin, Mary, Patience, Maribah, Jonathan, and David. The family had moved to Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey, at least by 1686 when their daughter Maribah was born:

List of Elizabeth and Jedediah Allen's children born in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey from 1686 and 1689 (Ancestry.com, Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1994, Records of the Shrewsbury Monthly Meeting Friends, Marriages 1674 to 1853, Births 1645 to 1869, and Deaths 1666 to 1876, taken from original records by Hugh D. Vail, Philadelphia 1878.)

Jedediah died in Shrewsbury around 1711/1712. Elizabeth may have died there as well, sometime after 1711.

I haven't done much research on Elizabeth, and some of what I've found is conflicting. One of these days, I'll get back to finding out more about her.

**I thought I should add more information as to where Elizabeth Howland fits in my family tree:

1. Elizabeth Howland and Jedediah Allen
2. Henry Allen and Hannah Corlies
3. Exercise Allen and David Rulon
4. Henry Rulon and Theodosia Robbins
5. John Rulon and Sarah Burt
6. Sarah Rulon and John Adam Redles
7. John Adam Redles (same name as his father) and Jane Eliza Myers
8. George Albert Redles and Isabella Liming
9. William Liming Redles and Martha Leona Roberts
10. Leona Roberts Redles and Albert Sidney Pendleton, Jr.
11. me

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #20 Exercise Allen, Quaker

Not long after ancestry.com uploaded U. S., Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1994, I received an email from them with hints for Exercise Allen and her father Henry Allen. What a surprise! I had no idea we had Quakers in our family. Exercise is my maternal 6th great grandmother.

I've always wondered about the name "Exercise." What did it mean back then? Did it mean the same as it does now? She may have been named after her maternal grandmother Exercise Shattuck.

Exercise Allen was born on October 18, 1705, in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey, to Henry Allen and Hannah Corlies. Her siblings were Jacob (b. 1704), Moses (b. 1707), Zachariah (1709), and Patience (b. 1711). Her paternal grandparents were Jedediah Allen and Elizabeth Howland.

Exercise's mother Hannah died in early 1712, not long after the birth of Exercise's sister Patience. Exercise was only seven years old when her mother died. It must have been hard for such young children to lose their mother. Exercise's father Henry married again in about 1714 to Abigail Adams and had at least seven more children.

Exercise Allen's siblings and half siblings 
(the Shrewsbury, New Jersey, monthly meeting, 
from U. S., Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1994 on ancestry.com)

Exercise married David Rulon, my 6th great grandfather (and great grandfather of Sarah Rulon) in 1724. I wonder if David was a Quaker, too. His father was Ruel Rulon, a French Huguenot who left France to escape religious persecution sometime in the late 1600s or early 1700s. I found a birth notice for Exercise and David's son Henry (my 5th great grandfather) in the Quaker meeting minutes, and I found several references to a David Rulon in the Quaker records. I haven't yet found if it was David who became a Quaker or if it was his father Ruel.

Exercise gave birth to at least 13 children: Catherine, Hannah, Mary, Henry (my 5th great grandfather), Eunice, Patience, Lydia, John, Phebe, Dorcas, David, Jonathan, and Abigail. The ancestry.com index for the Quaker meeting notes gives son Henry's birth place as Philadelphia, but I believe that's where the district meeting place at the time. "Greenwich Monthly Meeting, NJ" is typed on the first page of the digitized record, and on the page where Henry's birth is recorded, the residence is unfortunately left blank.

I have that Exercise died in 1770, but I don't know if that's correct. David died on March 15, 1778.

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.



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