Hi Malea.

Unfortunately the William Howland who I thought most likely to have been Isabel Cotter’s husband has turned out to be wrong, so we are back to square one!

Jim Smith has transcribed his 1685 will, and as expected it is the same will which Joyce had as 1686. The name she couldn't read for his son-in-law was [William] Joughen, who married William Howland’s daughter Margaret Howland. So this was not the Margaret Howland who married Richard Christian, the son-in-law in Isabel’s 1696/7 will, and William Howland d.1685 therefore could not have been Isabel’s husband. That’s unless William Joughin died and Margaret remarried to Richard Christian between the two dates the son-in-laws were named.

There are two Bride William Joughin wills between the dates.
1691-2 Bride E w 0991646, and 1693-1 Bride A w 0106206.

Jim Smith has sent me notes from the 1693 will and unfortunately William Joughin of Crosby with five children named looks too old for him to be the son-in-law in William Howland’s will. If his wife Margaret Howland remarried to Richard Christian she was young enough to have three more children, and they were the only three mentioned in her 1719/20 will.

There is a marriage contract in Bride for William Joughin and Margaret Howland which could be the best chance of finding out who this Margaret Howland’s parents were. It is in NSS in the old Bride contracts (before dates were given on the index) contract no.17.
Frances may have this.

There should also be one for Richard Christian and Margaret Howland which was mentioned in Isabel’s will, and which I would have bought if I had been able to find it. But not found listed in the index in Bride or Andreas when I photocopied these from film several years ago.

If there were two sets of parents for Margaret Howlands, they both appear to have had only two children each, with both called William and Margaret.

Sue