John Chipman (elder) and Hope Howland

(Pilgrims families & Chipman branch)

John CHIPMAN, elder, was born in 1614 in Bryan’s-Piddle, near Dorchester, England; died on 7 Apr 1708 in Sandwich, Barnstable, MA; buried in Sandwich, Barnstable,MA.

John CHIPMAN married Hope HOWLAND in 1646. They had the following children: Samuel CHIPMAN  Deacon (b. 15 Apr 1661), ♥ John CHIPMAN  Hon. (b. 3 Mar 1670), Elizabeth CHIPMAN (b.24 Jun 1647), Hope CHIPMAN (b. 31 Aug 1652), Lydia CHIPMAN (b. 25 Dec 1654), Hannah CHIPMAN (b. 14 Jan 1658), Ruth CHIPMAN (b. 31 Dec 1663), Bethia CHIPMAN (b. 1 Jul 1666), Mercy CHIPMAN (b. 6 Feb 1668), Desire CHIPMAN (b. 26 Feb 1673).

He also married Ruth SARGENT in 1684.

TRAVEL: Brotherless and early left fatherless, John sailed from Barnstable, Devon Co., England, in May 1631, on the Friendship, arriving in Boston, 14 July 1631.
John was the first and only one of the name, Chipman, in this country, and until 1850 there was no Chipman in this country who was not descended from him.{D2}

MARRIAGE: He first married Hope Howland, when she died, he secondly married Ruth Sargent. John Chipman lists his living children in his Will, dated 12 Nov 1702. {D1}{D2}

LIVELIHOOD: John was a carpenter and deputy.{D5} Also, “John Chipman was for successive years a selectman, then in Plymouth Colony invested with the authority of a magistrate, and was often a deputy of the court; and he with three assistants was designated to frequent the early Quaker meetings and ‘endeavor to reduce them from the errors of their wayes’.”

HOME: Plymouth in 1637, Yarmouth in 1647, and Barnstable in 1649.{D5} The elder John Chipman family homestead was located near the Barnstable Custom House. His son, Samuel, built the “Chipman Tavern” on the homestead, which then continued in the line of his prosperity until 1830.{D2}

RELIGION: On 30 Jun 1653, John joined his wife (Hope Howland) in becoming a member of the church at Barnstable. He became an Elder in Minister Russel’s Congregational Church at Barnstable.{D4}

HISTORICAL NOTE: John Chipman, son-in-law of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley signed his name (at age 58) to a Bond of Administration on the John Howland estate, dated 5 March 1672, see also Elizabeth Tilley notes. {D3}

DEATH John died at 88 years of age.{D4}

WILL: The Will of John Chipman, dated 12 Nov 1702, proved 17 May 1708, mentions his second wife Ruth and the children listed herein. An excerpt from the Will states, “It I Will and Bequeath to my Two Sons Sam and John my Whole Estate in Barnstable to them and theirs for Ever: that is to Say: That my Son Samuell shall have Two parts Thereof & my Son Jno one part or third thereof. unless my son Sam see Cause to pay his brother John seventy pounds in Lew of Sd Third part. and Samuel So Doing shall Enjoy the whole he and his heirs for Ever…” An inventory of personal belonging follows in the
article.{D1}

DOCUMENTS:
1. The Mayflower Descendant, Vol. III, article Elder John Chipman’s Will and Inventory, p 181; recorded in the Barnstable County Probate Records, Vol. III, pages 228-231.
2. The Chipman Family: A Genealogy of the Chipmans In America 1631-1920 by Bert Lee Chipman, Bert L. Chipman, Publisher, Winston -Salem,NC.
3. John Chipman’s autograph shown in “The Mayflower Descendant”, Vol. XIII, April 1911, article An Autograph of Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland, p. 65.
4. A Chipman Family History by Handley Chipman (1717-1799) of Newport, RI and Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. Reproduced and printed by “The New England Historical and Genealogical Register”, 1937 Vol. XCI, Publ. by the Society at the Robert Henry Eddy Memorial Rooms,Boston.
5.  Founders of Early American Families: Emigrants from Europe 1607-1657, by Meredith B. Colket, Jr. and others, 1975, publ by the General Court of the Order of Founders and Patriots in America, located in LDS Genealogical Library, 500 S. Langley, Tuscon, AZ.
* Individual source: The Chipman Family: A Genealogy of the Chipmans In America 1631-1920 by Bert Lee Chipman, 1920, Winston -Salem, NC.

Hope HOWLAND was born on 30 Aug 1629 in Plymouth, MA; died ABT 8 Jan 1683 in Barnstable, Barnstable, MA; buried in Lothrop Hill Burying Ground, Barnstable, MA.

MARRIAGE: Hope Howland, daughter of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley married (the Elder) John Chipman.{D1}

HOME:  In 1637 Plymouth Colony authorized the creation of three new settlements on Cape Cod, including; Sandwich, Barnstable and Yarmouth. Because the population of Plymouth Colony was too small to occupy the new settlements, outsiders were allowed, if they met some prudent conditions: 1) There could be no absentee land ownership, 2) persons “unfitt for church societe” were excluded, 3) individuals who were acceptable had to be “of good note.” A group migrated from Scituate to Barnstable led by John Lothrop, minister, and consisting primarily of his church members. Among them, or following very soon afterwards, were some early Plymouth residents, including two daughters of Pilgrim John Howland: Hope Howland with her husband John Chipman and family; also sister Desire Howland with her husband John Gorman and family, moved from Yarmouth to Barnstable.{D2}

BURIAL:  Hope died at Barnstable, MA. Her gravestone, which states, “interred ye body of Mrs. Hope Chipman, wife of Elder John Chipman”, is still standing in the old Lothrop Hill cemetery. Directions to Lothrop Hill cemetery: Go a mile or so west of Barnstable Center, MA., on Main Street, also known as Cape Cod’s Route 6A.{D1}
Lothrop Hill Burying Ground is on shady, rolling terrain located one half mile from the harbor. It is good to be remembered with a monument, because, “who have no memorial; who are perished as though they had never been.”{Ecclesiastics 44,9}

DOCUMENTS:
1. The Chipman Family: A Genealogy of the Chipmans In America 1631-1920 by Bert Lee Chipman, Bert L. Chipman, Publisher, Winston -Salem, NC.
2. The Mayflower Quarterly, Feb 1993, Vol. 59, “Pilgrim Suburbs On Cape Cod”, page 30-32.
Individual source: The Chipman Family: A Genealogy of the Chipmans In America 1631-1920 by Bert Lee Chipman, 1920, Winston -Salem,NC.

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Pilgrim Suburbs on Cape Cod
by Robert Thompson The Decision to  Expand to the Eastward 1637 – 1657.

Although Cape Cod was where Pilgrims first trod on American soil, the Cape remained virtually uninhabited, except by Indians, for the next seventeen years. The Pilgrims simply had not found the Cape sufficiently attractive for their settlement

But then about 1637, the Colony government suddenly reached back along the Cape, authorizing creation of three new settlements: Sandwich, Barnstable, and Yarmouth … This seemingly strange circumstance was the product of several factors: First, the Bay Colony on the Pilgrims’ northern exposure had grown tremendously – eclipsing the very modest growth of their own colony – thus
looming as a competitive threat to their own survival and potential prosperity.
Second, a “use it or lose it” perception emerged as a recognition of this situation; for Cape Cod was not only major coastal property but represented a significant portion of Colony land.
Third, since the population of Plymouth itself was deemed insufficient to render a viable migration and occupation of the entire Cape, it seemed necessary to allow outsiders to come in – subject, however to some prudent “conditions”.

Some of the “conditions” that were laid down: 1)  there could be no absentee land ownership, 2)  persons “unfitt for church societe” were excluded, and, 3) those individuals who were acceptable had to be persons “of good note”.

Some sixty families were involved with the migration from Saugus to Sandwich. The settlers were joined by some Plymouth and Duxbury residents, such as William Bassett Jr., James (Skiff) Skeffe … Names of Mayflower passengers are conspicuously absent. …
The early settlers of Sandwich roosted along the north shore facing Cape Cod Bay. They were allowed sections of upland to build on and sections of salt marsh for haying.

The group that migrated from Scituate to Barnstable was led by John Lothrop, minister, and consisted primarily of his church members. Among them, or very soon thereafter, were some early Plymouth residents, including the younger Samuel Fuller – Mayflower passenger -who married Lothrop’s daughter Jane. Other Barnstable residents with strong Pilgrim connection included Matthew Fuller, Samuel’s brother, and Thomas Hinkley, destined to become a colony governor: ♥ Hope Howland, daughter of Mayflower passenger John Howland and wife of John Chipman;  Desire Howland, Hope’s sister and wife of John Gorham: both families coming here from Yarmouth.

A few years after the initiation of settlements at Sandwich, Barnstable, and Yarmouth, many of the people back in Plymouth began to think about moving their town, en masse, to some other location –
having noted limitations of the land they occupied and the satisfaction of those who had moved already. Further, it became apparent that the continued migration trickle from Plymouth was eroding the Church. Many meetings were held and a committee finally appointed to study the feasibility of moving the town to a tract on the further reaches of the Cape known as Nauset. The committee reported back that a move was inadvisable because of the remoteness of the area and insufficient room for expansion. The idea of a move was then abandoned. But members of the committee went ahead and purchased land from the Nauset Indians anyway and most eventually moved there! The new town was named Eastham.

Among those who purchased land was Thomas Prence, … Nicholas Snow – family names which appear frequently in lines of descent from Mayflower passengers.

There remained a large tract between Yarmouth and Eastham which had been reserved for eventual division among the “old comers” – persons who had come from England on the first three ships.
In 1653 those who still retained rights picked up their options and a committee proceeded to lay out lots in a small portion of the area. The individuals included William Bradford, Thomas Prence,
John Howland, Nicholas Snow, William Collier, … Then for the next forty-one years there was both expansion and a great churning of properties as result of sale and resale, subdividing and re dividing, and endless land disputes. Finally, in 1694 the whole area was incorporated and given
the name Harwich. Taken from The Mayflower Quarterly, Feb. 1993, Vol.
59, No., page 30 -32.