Howard was deeply interested, in the welfare of the negroes; and the establishment by the U.S. Government in 1867 of Howard University, at Washington, especially for their education, was largely due to him; it was named in his honour, and from 1869 to 1873 he presided over it. In 1895 he founded for the education of the “mountain whites” the Lincoln Memorial University at Cumberland Gap, Tenn. (see [Cumberland Mountains]), and became president of its board. He held honorary degrees of various universities, and was a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He wrote, amongst other works, Donald’s Schooldays (1877); Chief Joseph (1881); a life of General Zachary Taylor (1892) in the “Great Commanders” series; Isabella of Castile (1894); Fighting for Humanity (1898); Henry in the War (1898); papers in the “Battles and Leaders” collection on the Atlanta campaign; My Life and Experience among our Hostile Indians (1907); and Autobiography of O. O. Howard (2 vols., New York, 1907).
HOWARD, SIR ROBERT (1626-1698), English dramatist, sixth son of Thomas Howard, 1st earl of Berkshire, was born in 1626. He was knighted at the second battle of Newbury (1644) for his signal courage on the Royalist side. Imprisoned in Windsor Castle under the Commonwealth, his loyalty was rewarded at the Restoration, and he eventually became auditor of the exchequer. His best play is a comedy, The Committee, or the Faithful Irishman (1663; printed 1665), which kept the stage, long after its interest as a political satire was exhausted, for the character of Teague, said to have been drawn from one of his own servants. He was an early patron of Dryden, who married his sister, Lady Elizabeth Howard, and in the Indian Queen, a tragedy in heroic verse (1664; pr. 1665) Howard had assistance from Dryden, although the fact was not made public until the production of Dryden’s Indian Emperor. The magnificence of the spectacle, and the novelty of the costume of feathers, presented by Mrs. Aphra Behn, that was worn by Zempoalla, the Indian queen, made a great sensation. The scenery and accessories were unusually brilliant, the richest ever seen in England, according to Evelyn. In 1665 Howard published Foure New Plays, in the preface to which he opposed the view maintained by Dryden in the dedicatory epistle to The Rival Ladies, that rhyme was better suited to the heroic tragedy than blank verse. Howard made an exception in favour of the rhyme of Lord Orrery, but by his silence concerning Dryden implicated him in the general censure. Dryden answered by placing Howard’s sentiments in the mouth of Crites in his own Essay on Dramatic Poesy (1668). The controversy did not end here, but Dryden completely worsted his adversary in the 1668 edition of The Indian Emperor. Howard died on the 3rd of September 1698.
His brother, James Howard, wrote two comedies, All Mistaken, or the Mad Couple, a comedy (1667; pr. 1672), and The English Mounsieur (1666; pr. 1674), the success of which seems to have been partly due to the acting of Nell Gwynn.
HOWARD, LORD WILLIAM (1563-1640), known as “Belted, or Bauld (bold) Will,” 3rd son of Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk (executed in 1572), and of his second wife Margaret, daughter of Lord Audley, was born at Audley End in Essex on the 19th of December 1563. He married on the 28th of October 1577 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Lord Dacre, and proceeded subsequently to the University of Cambridge. Being suspected of treasonable intentions together with his elder brother, Philip, earl of Arundel, he was imprisoned in 1583, 1585 and 1589. He joined the church of Rome in 1584, both brothers being dispossessed by the queen of a portion of their Dacre estates, which were, however, restored in 1601 for a payment of £10,000. Howard then took up his residence with his children and grandchildren at Naworth Castle in Cumberland, restored the castle, improved the estate and established order in that part of the country. In 1603, on the accession of James, he had been restored in blood. In 1618 he was made one of the commissioners for the border, and performed great services in upholding the law and suppressing marauders. Lord William was a learned and accomplished scholar, praised by Camden, to whom he sent inscriptions and drawings from relics collected by him from the Roman wall, as “a singular lover of valuable antiquity and learned withal.” He collected a valuable library, of which most of the printed works remain still at Naworth, though the MSS. have been dispersed, a portion being now in the Arundel MSS. in the Royal College of Arms; he corresponded with Ussher and was intimate with Camden, Spelman, and Cotton, whose eldest son married his daughter. He published, in 1592 an edition of Florence of Worcester’s Chronicon ex Chronicis, dedicated to Lord Burghley, and drew up a genealogy of his family, now among the duke of Norfolk’s MSS. at Norfolk House. He died in October 1640 at Greystock, to which place he had been removed when failing in health to escape the Scots who were threatening an advance on Naworth. He had a large family of children, of whom Philip, his heir, was the grandfather of Charles, 1st earl of Carlisle, and Francis was the ancestor of the Howards of Corby.
HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM, WILLIAM HOWARD, 1st Baron (c. 1510-1573), English lord high admiral, was the son of the 2nd duke of Norfolk. He was popular with Henry VIII., and at Anne Boleyn’s coronation was deputy earl marshal; and he was sent on missions to Scotland and France; but in 1541 he was charged with abetting his relative Queen Catherine Howard, and was convicted of misprision of treason, but pardoned. In 1552 he was made governor of Calais, and in 1553 lord high admiral, being created Baron Howard of Effingham in 1554 for his defence of London in Sir Thomas Wyat’s rebellion against Queen Mary. He befriended the princess Elizabeth, but his popularity with the navy saved him from Mary’s resentment; and when Elizabeth became queen he had great influence with her and filled several important posts. His son, the second baron, who is famous in English naval history, was created earl of Nottingham (q.v.); and from a younger son the later earls of Effingham were descended. William’s descendant, Francis (d. 1695), inherited the barony of Howard of Effingham on the death of his cousin, Charles, in 1681; and Francis’s son, Francis (1683-1743), was created earl of Effingham in 1731. This earldom became extinct on the death of Richard, the fourth holder, in 1816; but it was created again in 1837 in favour of Kenneth Alexander (1767-1845), another of William Howard’s descendants, who had succeeded to the barony of Howard of Effingham in 1816.
HOWE, ELIAS (1819-1867), American sewing-machine inventor, was born in Spencer, Massachusetts, on the 9th of July 1819. His early years were spent on his father’s farm. In 1835 he entered the factory of a manufacturer of cotton-machinery at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he learned the machinist’s trade. Subsequently, while employed in a machine shop at Cambridge, Mass., he conceived the idea of a sewing machine, and for five years spent all his spare time in its development. In September 1846 a patent for a practical sewing machine was granted to him; and Howe spent the following two years (1847-1849) in London, employed by William Thomas, a corset manufacturer, to whom he had sold the English rights for £250. Years of disappointment and discouragement followed before he was successful in introducing his invention, and several imitations which infringed his patent, particularly that of Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875), had already been successfully introduced and were widely used. His rights were established after much litigation in 1854, and by the date of expiration of his patent (1867) he had realized something over $2,000,000 out of his invention. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on the 3rd of October 1867.