Jabez Howland House — Plymouth 2026

33 Sandwich Street · Plymouth, Massachusetts

Not simply another historic house

The Jabez Howland House is a seventeenth-century home in downtown Plymouth named for Jabez Howland, the son of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley. The Pilgrim John Howland Society acquired the house in 1912 and preserves it as a museum devoted to the family and the world in which they lived.

For our family, that changed the visit completely. We were not only looking at an old building. We were stepping into a place where the Howland story is preserved through timber, brick, handwritten letters, family records, tools, and the ordinary work of a household.

BuiltSeventeenth century

NamesakeJabez Howland

Preserved byThe Pilgrim John Howland Society

Our connectionJohn Howland and Elizabeth Tilley descendants

Exterior of the Jabez Howland House in Plymouth — The Jabez Howland House at 33 Sandwich Street. Its weathered siding, diamond-pane windows, and enormous chimney announce that this is no ordinary stop.

A house that still feels inhabited

The low ceilings and massive beams make the age of the building immediately apparent. Wide floorboards bend and wear beneath each step. Diamond-pane windows admit small pools of light, while the great hearth remains the visual and practical center of the house.

The museum does something especially well: it lets the rooms speak. Rather than filling every corner with modern explanation, the furniture, cooking equipment, spinning tools, cupboards, and architecture create the feeling of a household paused in time.

Quiet room with old chairs and diamond-pane windows — A quiet room where the windows, chairs, worn floorboards, and low ceiling do most of the storytelling.

Main room with hearth and high-backed wooden settle — A high-backed settle divides the room beside the hearth, creating a protected working and living space.

Low exposed beams and timber doorway inside the house — The heavy, low beams leave no doubt about the age and construction of the house.

Small historic bedchamber with curtained bed — A curtained bedchamber demonstrates how warmth, privacy, and space were carefully managed.

The hearth: kitchen, heat, and household center

The brick hearth is large enough to make a modern camper kitchen look downright spacious. Iron arms, kettles, cookware, dried plants, and working implements show how many jobs gathered around the fire: cooking, heating water, preserving food, drying herbs, and simply keeping the household warm.

Historic brick cooking hearth with iron kettle and cooking equipment — The cooking hearth with an iron kettle, crane, and enclosed roaster—an entire kitchen built around fire.

Bundles of dried herbs hanging above the brick hearth — Bundles of herbs and plants hang to dry above the warm brickwork.

Work of the household

Spinning, fiber preparation, weaving, woodworking, and repair were not hobbies. They were the continuing work required to clothe a family and maintain a home. The equipment throughout the rooms makes that labor visible in a way a textbook never could.

Large spinning wheel and fiber tools — A large spinning wheel beside prepared fiber and household pottery.

Distaff loaded with fiber beside a small spinning device — A distaff loaded with fiber—one of the clearest small details from the visit.

Textile and yarn-making equipment inside the house — Textile tools show the many stages between raw fiber and usable thread or cloth.

Display of historic hand tools including planes, auger, drawknife, and brace — Planes, an auger, drawknife, brace, and other hand tools represent the constant work of shaping and repairing wood.

Objects brought back from Rocky Nook

One of the most meaningful exhibits contains artifacts recovered during archaeological work at the John and Joseph Howland sites at Rocky Nook in Kingston. Small objects—a buckle, chain link, pottery fragments, glass, lead shot, a cloth seal, and pieces of iron hardware—are humble, but they carry the physical evidence of daily life.

These are not grand treasures. That is precisely why they matter. They are the things people handled, broke, repaired, lost, and left behind.

Labeled artifacts excavated at John Howland's Rocky Nook Farm — Artifacts from digs at John Howland’s Rocky Nook farm, including pottery, ironwork, glass, lead shot, and a cloth seal.

Archaeological display with pottery, utensils, pipe stems, and iron fragments — Pottery, utensils, pipe stems, coins, fasteners, and iron fragments preserve the material side of the Howland story.

The family in ink and paper

The most personal objects are the written ones. A family Bible records marriages and births in handwriting. Nearby, a letter from Jabez Howland—identified as the son of John Howland the Pilgrim—was written to the Reverend John Cotton in 1692/3. The ink has faded, but the connection has not.

Open family Bible with handwritten marriage and birth records — An open family Bible carries marriage and birth records in the margins beside the printed text.

Framed 1692 letter from Jabez Howland to Reverend John Cotton — A letter from Jabez Howland, son of John Howland the Pilgrim, to the Reverend John Cotton, dated January 1692/3.

A numerous posterity

The large Howland family chart follows several branches across centuries and shows just how far the family spread. It echoes the words on John Howland’s Burial Hill memorial: from John and Elizabeth descended “a numerous posterity.” Our own branch is one small part of that continuing story.

Large Howland family descendant chart displayed in the house — The Howland family chart connects generations of descendants and makes the phrase “a numerous posterity” wonderfully visible.

Burial Hill gave us the Howland names carved in stone. The Jabez Howland House gave those names rooms, tools, handwriting, and a hearth.

One of the defining stops of the trip

The weather tried to slow the day down, but it may have made the visit even better. We stepped out of the rain and into a house where the family history felt close enough to touch. After seeing John Howland’s memorial on Burial Hill, walking through the Jabez Howland House completed another part of the pilgrimage.

Photographs by the Trail Tater crew during the Plymouth 2026 trip.

Return to Day Six Visit Burial Hill

Inside the Howland family story.