General Notes

The HOWES were among the very first settlers of Marlborough, and havebeen, in every period of her history, one of the most. numerous families furnishing vast numbers of emigrants for other and more western towns.

1 John HOWE, of Sud., was one of the petitioners in 1657, for the grant which constituted Marl. He was the son of John Howe, supposed to be the John Howe, Esq., who came from Warwickshire in Eng.,
and who was a descendant of John Howe, himself the son of John of
Hodinhull, and connected with the family of Sir Charles Howe of Lancaster, in the reign of Charles I.

John Howe resided first perhaps at Watertown, and afterwards at Sudury, where he was in 1639. He was admitted freeman in 1640. He died at Marlborough 1687, and his wife Mary died about the same time. In 1642 he was selectman in Sudbury, and in 1655 was appointed by the pastor and selectmen "to see to the restraining of youth on the Lord's day." According to tradition, he was the first white inhabitant who settled on the new grant. He came to Marl. about 1657, and built himself a cabin a little to the east of the Indian Planting Field, where his descendants lived for many generations. His place was situated some 100 rods from Spring Hill Meeting House, a little to the east of the present road from Spring Hill to Feltonville recently occupied by the late Edward Rice. His proximity to the Indian Plantation brought him in direct contact with the natives; but by his kindness, he gained the confidence and good will of his savage neighbors, who accordingly, not only respected his rights, but in many cases made him the umpire in cases of difficulties among themselves. In a case where a pumpkin vine sprang up within the premises of one Indian, and the fruit ripened upon the premises of another, the dispute which arose between them as to the ownership of the pumpkin, was referred to him ; and inspired with the wisdom of a second Solomon, he called for a knife, and severed the fruit, giving a moiety to each. This struck the parties as the perfection of justice, and fixed the impartiality of the judge on an immutable basis.

Nor was a sense of his justice and impartiality confided in by the Indians alone. When in 1662, Thomas Danforth, Esq., made a demand upon the Colony for a further compensation for his services, the Court ordered that he "shall have granted him so much land as old Goodman Rice and Goodman Howe, of Marlborough, shall judge to be worth ten pounds; and they are impowered to bound the same to him."
John Howe opened the first public house in the place. About 1670, we find his petition for a renewal of his license, and he speaks as though he had been some time engaged in the business.

The descendants of John Howe were very numerous ; though a portion of the Howes of Marlborough were of another family. John Howe's will, proved 1689, mentions wife Mary, sons Samuel, Isaac, Josiah, Thomas, and Eleazer, and dau. Sarah Ward, Mary Wetherby, and John IIowe, Jr., a son of son John, deceased. His property was inventoried at. Ð511. He gave Thomas "the horse he troops on."

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