Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/94

 had issue (1), M.D. [q. v.], (2) John, living in 1705 and married; (3) Obadiah, baptised at Torrington, 21 April 1661, died before 1705; (4) Philippa, baptised at Torrington, 4 Jan. 1666, married Matthew Collett; (5) James, a barrister of the Middle Temple, who married Mary Saunders, and died 12 April 1714. He married, secondly, Margaret (the date and surname are unknown), who died at Bath between 20 and 26 Feb. 1743, aged nearly 90.

Howe was of fine presence, tall and graceful, with an air of dignity and a piercing eye. His portrait, in long fair wig, engraved by [q. v.], from a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is in Palmer's 'Nonconformist's Memorial,' first edition, 1775, i. 409; the original painting is in Dr. Williams's Library, Gordon Square, W.C. Another painting, by John Riley, showing Howe in his own dark hair, was exhibited in the third exhibition of National Portraits, 1868; it has been engraved by Trotter. The earliest engraved portrait is by White, reproduced by J. Pine. Howe delivered his sermons without his notes; Thoresby, who heard him on 19 May 1695, says he 'preached incomparably.' His writings show an original mind, contemplative rather than profound, with considerable power of discrimination, and some warmth of fancy. His spirit is superior to his style; his diction rarely rises to the elevation of his thought; his sentences are negligent, and his punctuation seems devised for the ruin of perspicuity. He shines at his best in his consolatory letters (the anonymous one to Lady Russell in 1683 is well known), which are full of pathos and calm wisdom. He was not without humour; there is the story of his asking a courtier to permit him to swear the next oath. On his deathbed he made his son George burn all his papers, except sermon-notes, 'stitch'd up in a multitude of small volumes.' Few of his letters are preserved; most of these will be found in Rogers. An undated letter (p. 572, 1st edit., p. 536, 2nd edit.), which puzzles Rogers, refers to the schismatic action of [q. v.] at Newcastle in 1700.

Howe's 'Works' were collected in 1724, fol. 2 vols.; an enlarged edition was issued in 1810-22, 8vo, 8 vols., also 1848, 8vo, 3 vols., and 1862-3, 12mo, 6 vols. Middleton (followed by Wilson) enumerates thirty-three of his publications, besides prefaces, and five volumes of posthumous sermons, printed between 1726 and 1744 from short-hand reports. Among them are:
 * 1) 'On Man's Creation,' &c., 1660, 4to (sermon on 1 Thess. iv. 18).
 * 2) 'A Treatise on the Blessedness of the Righteous,' &c.,1668, 8vo.
 * 3) 'A Treatise of Delighting in God,' &c., 1674, 12mo.
 * 4) 'The Living Temple of God,' &c., 1675, 8vo.
 * 5) 'The Reconcileableness of God's Prescience,' &c., 1677, 8vo.
 * 6) 'Annotations,' &c., 1685, fol., on the three Epistles of St. John, in the continuation of Poole's 'Annotations.'
 * 7) 'The Carnality of Christian Contention,' &c., 1693,4to.
 * 8) 'A Calm and Sober Inquiry concerning the possibility of a Trinity,' &c.,1694, 4to.
 * 9) 'Some Consideration of a Preface to an Inquiry concerning … Occasional Conformity,' &c., 1701, 4to.
 * 10) 'A Second Part of the Living Temple,' &c., 1702, 8vo (criticises Spinoza).
 * 11) 'A Discourse on Patience,'&c.,1705,8vo.



HOWE, JOHN, fourth (1754–1804), born 22 Aug. 1754, was son of Thomas Howe (d. 1776), rector of Great Wishford and Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. His mother was Frances, daughter of Thomas White of Tattingstone, near Ipswich, Suffolk. His paternal grandfather, John Howe, had been raised to the peerage in 1741 as Baron Chedworth of Chedworth, Gloucestershire. Howe was educated first at Harrow, where he gave early proof of his lifelong predilections for the stage and the turf. He 