caption death_date death_place birth_place nationality married birth_date alt known_for image article_title name
marker , massachusetts for john howland on burial hill , plymouth february 23 , 1672/3 plymouth colony fenstanton , huntingdonshire , england english elizabeth tilley c. 1591 photo hill , plymouth , massachusetts of a maker for john howland on burial signing the mayflower compact john howland grave in plymouth ma.jpg john howland
 john howland
john howland

john howland -lrb- c. 1591 -- february 23 , 1672/3 -rrb- was a passenger on the `` mayflower '' .
he was an indentured servant and in later years , the executive assistant and personal secretary to governor john carver and accompanied the separatists and other passengers when they left england to settle in plymouth , massachusetts .
he signed the mayflower compact and helped found plymouth colony .
he signed the mayflower compact which is considered the first written constitution for a representative government ` of the people , by the people , for the people ' .
after the passengers came ashore john howland became assistant to the governor over the new independent state created under the compact .
the act of governor carver in making a treaty with the great indian sachem massosoit was an exercise of sovereign power and john howland was the assistant . ''
john carver , the first governor of the plymouth colony , died in april 1621 .
in 1626 , howland was a freeman and one of eight settlers who agreed to assume the colony 's debt to its investors in england in exchange for a monopoly of the fur trade .
he was elected deputy to the general court in consecutive years from 1641 -- 1655 and again in 1658 .
