Elizabeth Dane

Biography

Early seventeenth century–1693/94

Elizabeth Dane grew up in the English household of John Dane and his first wife, identified in the family reconstruction as Frances. Her brother John’s later memoir preserves an unusual childhood recollection. While their father was away completing business after a move to Bishop’s Stortford, in Hertfordshire in England, their mother ran short of money. Elizabeth, still a little girl, found a shilling in the yard and brought it indoors; her brother then found another. He remembered the incident as providential relief at a difficult moment.

Elizabeth became the wife of James Howe and raised her family in Massachusetts, including their daughter Rebecca. Her father’s 1658 will identifies her as Elizabeth How and leaves her a black cow, a small kettle, and a pewter candlestick. These specified objects preserve something of the material connections between her married household and her father's estate.

She lived through the prosecution of her daughter-in-law Elizabeth Howe in 1692. Her own death is placed in 1693/94, before her husband’s.