HOWLET, JOHN (1548–1589), jesuit, was born in the county of Rutland in 1548. He entered at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1564, and graduated B.A. in 1566, becoming a fellow. He went abroad in 1570 with the permission of his college, intending to travel to Rome, but, entering the college of Douay in the same year, he was in 1571 received into the order of Jesus at Louvain. At Douay he was a contemporary of Campion, and studied theology. He afterwards taught many different subjects, chiefly at Douay. In 1587 he proceeded to Poland to assist in the Transylvanian mission, and died at Wilna on 17 Dec. 1589.
Howlet's name was well known in England because it was appended to the dedication to the queen prefaced to the tract by Parsons entitled, 'A Brief Discours contayning certayne reasons why Catholiques refuse to go to Church. Written by a learned and vertuous man to a frend of his in England, and Dedicated by J. H. to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie,' Douay (really printed at London), 1580.
[Boase's Reg. of Exeter, pp. 45, 181, 207; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 184; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 67; Hearne's Coll., Oxf. Hist. Soc., 4 Sept. 1705; Reg. Univ. Oxon., (Oxf. Hist. Soc.),vol. ii. pt. ii.p.20; Henr. Morus, Hist. Provinciæ Anglicanæ Societatis Jesu, i. xv; Oliver's Biog. of the Members of the Soc. of Jesus, p.119; Southwell's Bibl. Script. Soc. Jesu, ed. Rome, 1676, p. 461; Foley's Records of the Engl. Province, i. 376; Knox's Douay Diaries, pp. 4, 24; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
HOWLETT, BARTHOLOMEW (1767–1827), draughtsman and engraver, born in Louth in Lincolnshire in 1767, was son, by his first marriage, of Bartholomew Howlett, a native of Norfolk, who was settled at Louth. Howlett came to London and served as apprentice to James Heath [q. v.] the engraver. He was mainly employed on topographical and antiquarian works. In 1801 he engraved and published 'A Selection of Views in the County of Lincoln,' with seventy-five plates from drawings by Girtin, Nash, and others, of which a later edition appeared in 1805. He also executed plates for Wilkinson's 'Londina Illustrata,' Bentham's 'History of Ely,' Frost's 'Notices of Hull,' Anderson's 'Plan and Views of the Abbey Royal of St. Denys,' the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' and similar works. In 1817 he made a number of drawings for a projected 'History of Clapham,' of which one number only was published. When the Royal Hospital of St. Katherine, near the Tower, was pulled down in 1826, Howlett made a number of drawings, with a view to a publication, which never appeared. For John Caley [q. v.] Howlett made drawings of about a thousand seals of English monastic and religious houses. Subsequently he fell into pecuniary difficulties, and died at Newington, 18 Dec. 1827, aged 60.
[New Monthly Magazine, June 1828; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. i. 321, vii. 69, 5th ser. ix.488; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]
HOWLETT, JOHN (1731–1804), political economist, was doubtless son of John Howlett of Bedworth, Warwickshire. He matriculated from St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, on 10 Nov. 1749, aged 18, and graduated B.A. from St. John's College in 1755, M.A. in 1795, and B.D. in 1796. He was presented to the living of Great Dunmow, Essex, in 1771, and was also vicar of Great Badow. He died at Bath on 29 Feb. 1804.
Howlett wrote much on the statistics and condition of the people, and severely criticised the theories and writings of Dr. Price. In contradiction to Price he maintained that enclosures resulted from the increase in population. As an economist he is wanting in originality. His merits as a statistician consist chiefly in the miscellaneous information which he brought together.
His works, apart from separately published sermons, are:
- 'An Examination of Dr. Price's Essay on the Population of England and Wales,' 1781.
- 'An Enquiry into the Influence which Enclosures have had upon the Population of England,' 1786.
- 'An Essay on the Population of Ireland,' 1786.
- 'Enclosures a cause of Improved Agriculture,' 1787. This is a rejoinder to the reviews of his previous work on enclosures.
- 'The Insufficiency of the causes to which the Increase of our Poor and the Poor's Rates have been generally ascribed,' 1788.
- 'At end of Wood's Account of Shrewsbury House of Industry a Correspondence with Howlett,' 1795.
- 'An Examination of Mr. Pitt's Speech in the House of Commons on 12 Feb. 1796, relative to the condition of the Poor,' 1796.
- 'Dispersion of the present gloomy apprehensions of late repeatedly suggested by the Decline of our Corn Trade, and conclusions of a directly opposite tendency established upon well-authenticated facts. To which are added Observations upon the first Report of the Committee on Waste Lands,' 1798.
- 'The Monthly Reviewers reviewed in a Letter to those Gentlemen, pointing out their Misrepresentations and fallacious Reasonings in the Account of the Pamphlet,' &c., 1798.
- 'An Inquiry concerning the Influence of Tithes upon Agriculture,' &c. (with remarks on Arthur Young), 1801.
