ded.) In 1631 he published his final edition of the 'Annales,' with a dedication to Charles I, and a concluding address to the lord mayor and aldermen of London. Howes lays much stress on his love of truth, and the difficulties caused him in his labours by 'venomous tongues.' In a letter to Nicholas, dated 23 Dec. 1630, he refers to the passage of his work through the press, and mentions Sir Robert Pye as a friend (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1629-31, p.416). The 1631 edition of the 'Annales' is the most valuable of all, and Howes's additions are not the least interesting part of it.
[Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 199; Howes's prefaces and dedications.]
HOWES, EDWARD (fl. 1650), mathematician, was studying law in 1632 at the Inner Temple, and appears afterwards to have entered holy orders. In 1644 he was a master in the 'Ratcliffe Free School,' London, and in 1659 is 'called rector of Goldancher [i.e. Goldanger] in Essex.' Howes was the intimate friend and frequent correspondent of John Winthrop [q. v.], governor of Massachusetts. In 1632, writing from the Inner Temple, he sent Winthrop a tract which he had printed to show that the north-west passage to the Pacific was probably 'not in the 60° or 70° of N. latitude, but rather about 40th.' 'I am verilie perswaded of that, there is either a strait as our narrow seas, or a Mediterranean sea west from you.' The tract is called 'Of the Circumference of the Earth, or a Treatise of the North Weast Passage,' London, 1623.
On 25 Aug. 1635 Howes wrote to Winthrop, 'I think I shall help you to one of the magneticall engines which you and I have discoursed of that will sympathize at a distance,' a possible foreshadowing of the modern telegraph; and in 1640, 'as for the magneticall instrument it is alsoe sympatheticall.' In 1644 Howes speaks of possibly establishing a school in Boston, and in various letters refers to the wish of many religious people to go to the plantations.
In 1659 Howes published `A Short Arithmetick, or the Old and Tedious way of Numbers reduced to a New and Briefe Method, whereby a mean Capacity may easily attain competent Skill and Facility.' It is well arranged for practical instruction. At the end of his address to the reader Howes speaks of 'having also the theoreticall part finished and ready to be published, if desired.' No other part seems to have been issued.
[Massachusetts Hist. Soc. Collections, 3rd ser. vol. ix. 4th ser. vi. 467, &c.; Life and Letters of John Winthrop, p. 20.]
HOWES, FRANCIS (1776–1844), translator, fourth son of the Rev. Thomas Howes of Morningthorpe, Norfolk, by Susan, daughter of Francis Linge of Spinworth in the same county, was born in 1776, and was educated at the Norwich grammar school. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1794, graduated B. A. in 1798 as eleventh wrangler, and proceeded M.A. in 1804. In 1799 he obtained the members' prize. His chief college friend was John (afterwards Sir John) Williams [q. v.], the judge, who subsequently allowed him 100l. a year. He held various curacies, and in 1815 became a minor canon of Norwich Cathedral, afterwards holding the rectories successively of Alderford (from 1826) and of Framingham Pigot (from 1829). He died at Norwich in 1844, and was buried in the west cloister of the cathedral . He married early Susan Smithson, and left issue; one of his sisters, Margaret, married Edward Hawkins, and was the mother of Edward Hawkins [q. v.], provost of Oriel.
Howes published the following translations into English verse:
- 'Miscellaneous Poetical Translations,' London, 1806, 8vo.
- 'The Satires of Persius, with Notes,' London, 1809, 8vo.
- 'The Epodes and Secular Ode of Horace,' Norwich, 1841, 8vo, privately printed.
- 'The First Book of Horace's Satires,' privately printed, Norwich, 1842, 8vo.
After his death his son, C. Howes, published a collection of his translations, London, 1845, 8vo. The merit of his translations was recognised by Conington in the preface to his version of the satires and epistles of Horace. Howes composed epitaphs for various monuments in Norwich Cathedral.
Thomas Howes (1729-1814) was the only son of Thomas Howes of Morningthorpe (a first cousin of Francis Howes's father), by Elizabeth, daughter of John Colman of Hindringham, Norfolk. He entered at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1743, and graduated B.A. in 1746. For a time he was in the army, but quitted it to take holy orders. After serving curacies in London he held the crown rectory of Morningthorpe, Norfolk, from 1756 until the death of his father in 1771, when he was instituted to the family living of Thorndon, Suffolk. He died at Norwich, unmarried, on 29 Sept. 1814. He was a friend of Dr. Parr. Howes began to publish in 1776 his 'Critical Observations on Books, Ancient and Modern,' four volumes of which appeared before his death. This is now a very rare work. In vol. iii. he printed a sermon preached by him in 1784 against Priestley and Gibbon, to which Priestley replied in an appendix to his ' Letters to Dr. Horsley,' pt. iii. Howes answered the reply in his fourth volume.
