• Recently our Society engaged Sir Anthony Wagner, Garter Principal King of Arms, to try to establish the ancestry of Henry Howland of Fen Stanton and, also, to determine whether the is the same Henry Howland who married Alice Ayres in Ely. Sir Anthony’s conclusion is that they are two separate families and the Henry Howland of Ely also appears on the Ely records as Henry Howlett.44

• The identity of this family is proved by the probate records of their son, Humphrey Howland, a draper, who settled in St. Swithin's Parish, in London. In his will proved in 1646 by his second wife, Ann (Mary), Humphrey Howland mentioned his brothers, Arthur, John, Simon and Henry, and his sister, Margaret, wife of Richard Phillips of Fenstanton, shoemaker. In addition, on 11 July 1646, Humphrey's second wife administered the intestate estate of another brother, George Howland, a merchant of St. Dunstan's, East London, who had died two years previously, 10 February 1643/4. Brother Simon Howland was baptized in Fenstanton 19 August 1604, and was apprenticed 19 March 1622, to his brother, Humphrey Howland, who was called “citizen and draper of London.” This ties the whole family to Fenstanton.18