Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/50

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Howard
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Howard

and four daughters: Anne, married to Sir Edward Gorges of Wraxall, Somerset; Isabel, married to Sir Robert Mortimer of Essex; Jane, married to John Timperley; and Margaret, married to Sir John Wyndham of Crownthorpe and Felbrigg, Norfolk, ancestor of the Wyndhams, earls of Egremont. His second wife, who bore him one daughter, Catharine, married to John Bourchier, second lord Berners [q. v.], survived him, married John Norreys, and died in 1494. Norfolk's autograph as ' J. Howard ' is subscribed to a letter of his in Cotton MS. Vesp. F. xiii. 79, and as duke is given in Doyle's 'Official Baronage.' A painting of Norfolk at Arundel has been engraved by Audinet, and the engraving is given in Cartwright's 'Rape of Bramber,' and a portrait in coloured glass in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk is also given in colours by Cartwright. Nicolas speaks of two portraits of Norfolk and his first wife Catharine, in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle, which have been engraved.

[An excellent biography by Sir H. N. Nicolas in Cartwright's Eape of Bramber, which forms vol. ii. pt. ii. of Dallaway's Western Division of Sussex, must in places be corrected by the Paston Letters, ed. Grairdner, and by the Accounts and Memoranda of Norfolk in Manners and Household Expenses (Roxburghe Club). See also Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 265 sq.; Doyle's Official Baronage, ii. 586; Rymer's Fœdera, xi. ed.1710; Rolls of Parliament, vol. vi.; Return of Members,i. 351, 358; Stow's Annals (Howes); Hall's Chron. ed. 1809; Polydore Vergil and Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles (Camd. Soc.); Mémioires de P. de Commines, ed. Buchon; Letters and Papers, Richard III and Henry VIII (Rolls Ser.); Archæologia, i. 351; Kennett's Complete History, p. 568; Gairdner's Life and Reign of Richard the Third.]

W. H.

HOWARD, JOHN (1726?–1790), philanthropist, was born most probably in Hackney on 2 Sept. 1726. There is some uncertainty both as to the date and the place of his birth, but in default of absolute proof to the contrary the inscription on his monument in St. Paul's is likely to be correct. His father, John Howard, was a partner in an upholstery and carpet business near Long Lane. His mother, whose maiden name was Cholmley, died soon after his birth. Young Howard, who was a sickly child, spent his early days at Cardington, some three miles from Bedford, where his father had a small property. He was sent to a school at Hertford, kept by one John Worsley, the author of several school books and a translation of the New Testament. There he remained seven years and 'left it not fairly taught one thing.' After being for a short time at Newington Green, under the tuition of John Eames [q. v.] Howard was apprenticed to the firm of Newnham & Shepley, wholesale grocers, in Watling Street. His father died in September 1742, leaving his two children fairly well off, and Howard, obtaining a release from his indentures, went for a tour on the continent. After his return to England he resided at Stoke Newington, where he suffered much from nervous fever, and was obliged to adopt a rigorous regimen. When about twenty-five years of age he married his landlady, Sarah Loidore (or Lardeau), an elderly widow of fifty-two. He is said to have taken this step under a conscientious sense of obligation to the lady, and as some sort of return for the great care with which she had nursed him through his long illness. Their married life was short, for she died on 10 Nov. 1755, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary's, Whitechapel. After his wife's death Howard left Stoke Newington and took lodgings in St. Paul's Churchyard. In 1756 he started for Portugal, but the Hanover, the Lisbon packet on which he sailed, was captured by a French privateer. The crew and the passengers were carried prisoners to France, where they suffered great privations. Returning to England on parole he successfully negotiated an exchange for himself, and having detailed to the commissioners of sick and wounded seamen the sufferings of his fellow-prisoners, their release was obtained from the French government. In May 1756 Howard was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and about this time took up his residence at Cardington, Bedfordshire, which remained his principal home during the rest of his life.

On 25 April 1758 he married Henrietta, daughter of Edward Leeds of Croxton, Cambridgeshire, serjeant-at-law. Previously to his second marriage Howard, with commendable caution, appears to have made an agreement with the lady 'that to prevent altercations about those little matters which he had observed to be the chief grounds of uneasiness in families, he should always decide' (Dr. Brown, Memoirs, p. 55). Howard now busied himself in erecting model cottages on his Cardington property, providing elementary education for the children of all sects, and encouraging the individual industry of the villagers. For the benefit of his wife's health he subsequently purchased a house at Watcombe, near Lymington, where they lived for two or three years; but, finding the place unsuitable, they returned to Cardington, where his second wife died on 31 March 1765, having given birth to a son four days previously. In the following year, his health having again broken down, he visited Bath.