Rebecca Howe

Biography

About 1651–1725

Rebecca Howe was born about 1651, a daughter of James Howe and Elizabeth Dane. She married Stephen Barnard on May 1, 1671 and made her married home in Andover (in northeastern Massachusetts), where Stephen worked as a weaver. Their children included John, Hannah, Nathaniel, James, and Robert, born across the 1670s and 1680s.

In 1692, Rebecca’s wider family was drawn into the witchcraft prosecutions. Her sister-in-law Elizabeth Howe, the wife of her brother James, was accused. Their elderly father submitted a written defense describing the care Elizabeth had given his blind son.

Rebecca lived beyond both parents and, later, beyond Stephen, who died in 1722. The published Howe genealogy records her death on April 15, 1725. Her long marriage connected the Howe family of Ipswich with a weaving household in Andover, while the court record reveals the crisis affecting those close family connections.