BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
John Lothropp and Hannah Howse Little is known of Hannah Howse outside of her marriage to John Lothropp. One source gives her parents as John and Alice Howse of Eastwell, Kent, England.
John Lothropp was baptized in Etton, Yorkshire, England on December 20, 1584, reportedly the son of Thomas Lowthroppe and Mary Howell.
John entered Queens College at Cambridge in 1601 and earned degrees in 1605 and 1609. He was ordained as a deacon during this time, on December 20, 1607 and served as a curate in Bennington, Hertfordshire. Upon graduation, he settled in Egerton, Kent and served as the minister there.
On October 10, 1610, John Lothropp and Hannah Howse were married in Eastwell, Kent, four miles west of Egerton. They had eight children, all baptized in either Eastwell or Egerton:
During this time, John's religious views began to gravitate towards Protestant or "Puritan" beliefs. The Puritans rejected the ceremonies and grandeur of the Church of England and sought to pursue their faith in simpler ways. The Church of England was established by Henry VIII in 1534 (when the Pope refused to grant him a divorce) and since then, the two schools of thought (the Protestant/Puritan faith based on the work of Martin Luther and John Calvin, and the near-Catholicism of the Church of England or "Anglican" church) had uneasily co-existed, with the balance of power dictated by the reigning monarch.
King James I, who took the throne in 1603, and his 1625 successor, Charles I, both espoused the Anglican church and Protestants were persecuted during their reigns.
John Lothropp succeeded Henry Jacobs as the leader of the Independent Congregational Society in London after Reverend Jacobs left England for Virginia. On April 29, 1632, the congregation was discovered by the authorities and 42 of its members were imprisoned. Within two years, all were released on bail except for John who remained incarcerated at Newgate Prison, nicknamed "The Clink".
Hannah, John's wife, fell sick during his imprisonment and died in 1634. John was then finally released from prison on the condition (accordingly to some accounts) that he leave the country. He, his children (except son John) and 30 of his followers left England in August aboard the "Griffin" and sailed for New England, arriving in Boston on September 18, 1634. The group settled first in Scituate, Massachusetts and moved to Barnstable in 1639.
John married his second wife, a woman named Ann, in Scituate about 1635. They would have six children:
Reverend John Lothropp died on November 8, 1653 in Barnstable and was buried on November 10.
John's wife Ann died on February 25, 1687/88 in Barnstable.
Sources & Related Information
