Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/83

 , he was soon withdrawn. In 1773 he was placed with a wine merchant at Oporto. In 1777 his father and the duke died. He returned to England, and found that Duke Edward had bequeathed him an annuity of 45l. The new duke, Charles (1720–1786) [q.v.],became his friend, and continued the allowance previously made to his father. In 1793 he was much embarrassed by debts. The eleventh duke, Charles (1746–1815) [q. v.], seems to have satisfied himself from a pedigree in the College of Arms that Howard's claims to kinship with him were fictitious. On 21 Dec. 1795 Howard was released from a debtor's prison, and by the duke's steward established at Ewood, Surrey, on a small property. The duke ordered him to be called ‘Mr. Smith.’ When he went to London to complain of this grievance, the duke refused to see him, and would not allow him to resume occupation of Ewood. Howard now devoted himself to correct the College of Arms pedigree of the ducal family, and to regain the Ewood property. He wrote to the lord chancellor, and tried to address the court of chancery in July 1809, and even attempted to address the House of Lords. Thomas Christopher Banks [q. v.] wrote a foolish pamphlet in his support, and drew up for him a petition to the king. Howard presented a petition to the prince regent on 25 April 1812, and waylaid the prince in Pall Mall on 12 May, for which he apologised in another letter. He was taken into custody on presenting himself at Norfolk House, and, after examination before a magistrate, was committed to prison. He obtained some allowance from the twelfth duke, Bernard Edward (1765-1842) [q. v.], and is believed to have died in 1830 or 1831. By his wife, Miss Jane Martin of Gateside, Westmoreland, he left no issue.

 HOWARD, WILLIAM (d. 1308), judge, was perhaps the son of John Howard of Wiggenhall, Norfolk (living 1260), by Lucy, daughter of John Germund. The family, which was probably of Saxon origin, belonged to the class of smaller gentry, and was settled in the neighbourhood of Lynn, Norfolk. The name Howard, Haward, or Hayward, is said to have been compounded of haye (hedge) and ward (warden), and to have denoted originally an officer whose principal duty it was to prevent trespass on pasture-land. Howard was counsel to the corporation of Lynn, and appears as justice of assize for the northern counties in 1293, and was in the following year commissioner of sewers for the north-west of Norfolk. He was summoned to parliament as a justice in 1295, and on 11 Oct. 1297 was appointed a justice of the common pleas. In the following year he purchased Grancourt's manor, East Winch, near Lynn, where he had his principal seat. In 1305, and again in 1307, he was one of the commissioners of trailbaston. He must have died or retired in the summer or autumn of 1308, the patent of his successor, Henry le Scrope, being dated 27 Nov. in that year. In or about the reign of Henry VII a figure of him kneeling in his robes with the legend 'Pray for the soul of William Howard, chief justice of England,' was inserted in one of the stained-glass windows in the church of Long Melford, Suffolk. He does not seem, however, to have held the office of chief justice (, Orig. 44, Chron. Ser. 34). Howard married, first, Alice, daughter of Sir Robert Ufford, ancestor of the first earls of Suffolk; secondly, Alice, daughter of Sir Edmund de Fitton of Fitton in Wiggenhall St. Germains, Norfolk. By his first wife he had no issue; by the second two sons, Sir John and Sir William. By the marriage of Sir Robert Howard, a lineal descendant of Sir John, with Margaret, daughter and coheir to Thomas de Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, part of the estates of the duchy passed to their son, Sir John, first duke of Norfolk of the Howard family [q. v.]

 HOWARD, WILLIAM, first (1510?–1573), born about 1510, was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, second duke of Norfolk [q. v.], by his second wife. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, under Gardiner, and at a very early age came to court. In 1531 Howard went on his first embassy to Scotland, and was entertained by James V at St. Andrews. His mission seems to have been to propose a marriage between James and the Princess Mary. He was with Henry VIII at Boulogne, and at the coronation of Anne Boleyn he was deputy earl-marshal. Henry liked and trusted him. In January 1532 he 'won of the king