Little Neck Cemetery in East Providence contains the graves of John Brown, Jr. who purchased Wannamoisett from the Massasoit Osamequin in 1643, Elizabeth Tilley who was a passenger on the 1620 Mayflower voyage to Plymouth, and Captain Thomas Willett, who settled in Rehoboth in 1643 and later served as the Mayor of New York City in 1665 and 1667 because he spoke Dutch.
The northern neck of Bullocks Cove is visible next to the cemetery where the first burial occurred in 1655 in the Wannamoisett area.
Captain Thomas Willetts’s grave marker erected by the City Club of New York in 1913 is easily found in the cemetery in front of the Elizabeth Howland gravemarker. Click here to read an article about Willett.
Elizabeth Tilley Howland (c. Aug 1607 – December 21, 1687) was one of the passengers on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower and a participant in the first Thanksgiving in the New World. She was the daughter of Mayflower passenger John Tilley and his wife Joan Hurst and, although she was their youngest child, appears to be the only one who survived until the voyage. She was present at the first meeting between the Pilgrims and Americans Aborigine, later known as the First Encounter.and was one of the few original Pilgrims to live to see King Philip’s War. She went on to marry fellow Mayflower passenger John Howland, with whom she had ten children and 88 grandchildren. Because of their great progeny, she and her husband have millions of living descendants today. [Wikipedia] Click on the photo above for a larger view.
Click here for the four-part cable television series on the life of Elizabeth and John Howland by local historian David Norton
Click here for the Wikipedia description of the cemetery and many of its illustrious inhabitants.
Click here for a story about Elizabeth Howland by Robert Huber of the John Howland Society.
Click here for the East Providence Historical Society web site about the cemetery.
Click on the map below for a Google satellite map.
