in 1720 a maid of honour to Caroline, princess of Wales, and married first, on 14 June 1725, Thomas, eighth earl of Pembroke and fifth of Montgomery, and secondly, in October 1735, the Hon. John Mordaunt, brother of Charles, fourth earl of Peterborough, and died 12 Sept. 1749; (3) Judith, who became the wife of Thomas Page of Battlesden, Bedfordshire, and died 2 July 1780; and (4) Anne, who married on 8 May 1728 Colonel Charles Mordaunt. Howe's widow survived him many years, and died on 10 Sept. 1747. The Irish titles became extinct upon the death of his grandson William, fifth viscount Howe [q. v.], in 1814.
[Luttrell's Brief"Relation,1857, i.49, 326,iii.60, 546,iv.423, 649,v.38,vi. 606; Rudder's Hist. of Gloucestershire, 1779, p. 708; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, 1789, v. 80, 83-5; Collins's Peerage of England, 1812,i. 345; Edmondson's Baron. Geneal. i. 44, v. 434, vi. 27; Le Neve's Monumenta Anglicana, 1700-15 (1717), p. 251; Townsend's Catalogue of Knights, 1833,p. 37; Catalogue of Oxford Graduates, 1851, p. 339; Chester's London Marriage Licences, 1887, 718; Calendar of Treasury Papers, 1557-1696 pp. 474-475, 1697-1702 p. 419, 1720-8 p.377; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, pt. i. pp. 526, 537, 543, 548, 560, 567, 575, pt. ii. p.22.]
HOWE or HOW, WILLIAM (1620–1656), botanist, born in London in 1620, was sent to Merchant Taylors' School on 11 Dec. 1632 (Robinson, Merchant Taylors' School, i. 134). He became a commoner of St. John's College at Oxford in 1637, when eighteen, graduated B.A. in 1641, and M.A. 21 March 1643-4, and entered upon the study of medicine (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 2, 58). He took up arms in the king's cause, and for his loyalty was promoted to the command of a troop of horse. On the decline of the royal fortunes he resumed his medical profession, and practised in London, at first living in St. Lawrence Lane, and afterwards in Milk Street, Cheapside, where he died, after a few weeks' illness, on 31 Aug. 1656. By his own directions, he was buried at the left side of his mother, in the churchyard of St. Margaret's, Westminster, at ten o'clock at night. His will was proved by his widow Elizabeth, as sole executrix, on 22 Sept. of that year.
Howe published: 1.'Phytologia Britannica, natales exhibens Indigenarum Stirpium sponte emergentium,' London, 1650, an anonymous octavo of 134 pages, first attributed to Howe by C. Merrett in his 'Pinax,' 1666. It is the earliest work on botany restricted to the plants of this island, and is a very full catalogue for the time. In its compilation he was helped by several friends. 2. 'Matthiæ de Lobel Stirpium illustrationes, plurimas elaborantes inauditas plantas, subreptitiis Joh. Parkinsoni rapsodiis (ex codice insalutato) sparsim gravatæ. … Accurante Guil. How, Anglo,' London, 1655, 4to. The latter was a fragment of a large work planned by Lobel, and seems to have been published to discredit Parkinson, who is vindictively attacked by the editor in his notes, although he had bought the right to use Lobel's manuscript.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 418-19; E. Pulteney's Sketches, i. 169-72; Eegisters, Probate Court, London, and St. Margaret's, Westminster.]
HOWE, WILLIAM, fifth Viscount Howe (1729–1814), general, was younger son of Emanuel Scrope Howe, second viscount Howe, by his wife Mary Sophia, eldest daughter of Baron Kielmansegge. His elder brothers were George Augustus, third viscount Howe killed at Ticonderoga and Richard, earl Howe, K.G. [q.v.], the admiral. William Howe was born on 10 Aug. 1729. He was educated at Eton, and on 18 Sept. 1746 was appointed cornet in the Duke of Cumberland's light dragoons (Home Office Mil. Entry Book, xix. ff. 386-7), in which he was made lieutenant on 21 Sept. 1747. The 'duke's dragoons,' as the regiment was called, was formed out of the Duke of Kingston's regiment of horse after the battle of Culloden, served in Flanders in 1747-8, and was disbanded at its birthplace, Nottingham, early in 1749. Howe became captain-lieutenant in Lord Bury's regiment (20th foot) 2 Jan. 1750, and captain on 1 June the same year. He served in the regiment until his promotion, Wolfe being major at the time, and afterwards lieutenant-colonel commanding the regiment. On 4 Jan. 1756 Howe was appointed major in the newly raised 60th (Anstruther's) foot, which was renumbered as the 58th foot (now 1st Northampton) in February 1757. He became lieutenant-colonel on 17 Dec. 1759, and the year after took the regiment out from Ireland to America, and commanded it at the siege and capture of Louisburg, Cape Breton. Wolfe, a personal friend, wrote soon after: 'Our old comrade, Howe, is at the head of the best trained battalion in all America, and his conduct in the last campaign corresponded entirely with the opinion we had formed of him' (Wright, Life of Wolfe,p. 468). Howe commanded a light infantry battalion, formed of picked soldiers from the various regiments employed, in the expedition to Quebec under Wolfe. He led the forlorn hope of twenty-four men that forced the entrenched path by which Wolfe's force scaled the heights of Abraham
