Desire Howland

Biography

Desire Howland became responsible for a complicated household and business estate when her husband, Captain John Gorham, died during the winter of 1675/76. She was a daughter of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, and her married family included children already grown as well as younger dependants.

On March 7, 1675/76 the court appointed Desire and her sons James and John administrators. Two days later they entered an administration bond. The published facsimile preserves her signature as “desier gorham” beside those of her sons. The bond required £800 as security for their administration.

Their work involved much more than dividing household furniture. The inventory included mills, land, livestock, leather and a tannery, as well as accounts owed to the estate. Desire and her sons swore to the inventory presented to the court. It recorded cloth, yarn, spinning equipment and household utensils alongside commercial tools and stock.

The settlement provided Desire with the profits of a third of the land, housing and mill for life, a third of the remaining movable estate after debts, and the right to live in the house she then occupied. It also awarded her lifetime control of the labor of an unnamed enslaved Black man listed in the inventory. That provision was part of her legal benefit from the estate, and a restriction on another person's freedom.

The court reserved additional money for the education of the youngest son, Shubael. Fifty pounds was to be used for his schooling as his mother considered appropriate. That clause gave Desire explicit authority over an important part of his upbringing. The other arrangements allocated the tannery to John, property to James, and shares for the remaining children, with adjustments for daughters who had already received marriage portions.

Desire survived her husband by more than seven years. The published Gorham account records her death at Barnstable, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, on October 13, 1683.

The burial listing associates Desire Howland with Cobb's Hill Cemetery East and West, Barnstable, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States.