Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howlett, Bartholomew
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.]