The Howe Dynasty

by Julie Flavell

  PBF

  William B. Willcox et al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (42 vols., New Haven and London, 1959–2017)

  PCC

  The National Archives, Kew: Prerogative Court of Canterbury

  SALS-DD/SH

  Somerset Archives and Local Studies, South West Heritage Trust, Strachey Collection

  Smith

  David Smith, William Howe and the American War of Independence (London, New Delhi, New York, and Sydney, 2015)

  Syrett

  David Syrett, Admiral Lord Howe: A Biography (Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2006)

  WCL-GSG

  William L. Clements Library, George Sackville Germain Papers 1683–1785

  WCL-HC

  William L. Clements Library, Richard and William Howe Collection, 1758–1812

  WCL-HCP

  William L. Clements Library, Sir Henry Clinton Papers

  WCL-KP

  William L. Clements Library, William Knox Papers

  WCL-SP

  William L. Clements Library, Henry Strachey Papers, 1768–1802

  Prelude: Dynastic Secrets

  1BL-AP, 75612, CH/LS, Dec. 2, 1774.

  2PBF, vol. 21, p. 566.

  3Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George II (3 vols., London, 1847), vol. 3, p. 50.

  4Anderson, p. 6; Gruber, p. 351.

  5Syrett, p. 156; Sam Willis, The Glorious First of June: Fleet Battle in the Reign of Terror (London, 2011), p. 43.

  6Smith, p. 1.

  7Amanda Vickery, “Home Truths: Amanda Vickery on Why David Starkey Is Wrong,” The Independent, November 7, 2010.

  8Mary Beard, “The Public Voice of Women,” London Review of Books 36, no. 6, 20 (2014), pp. 11–14.

  9Joseph J. Ellis, First Family: Abigail and John Adams (New York and Toronto, 2010), p. x.

  One: The Howe Women

  1BL-AP, 75628, CH/LS, Sat., April 8, 1786. I am grateful to Martin Price for drawing this quote to my attention.

  2Matthew Kilburn, “Howe, (Mary Sophia) Charlotte [née Sophia Charlotte Mary von Kielmansegg], Viscountess Howe (1703–1782),” ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 1, 2019]. About names: Charlotte von Kielmansegg was born Sophia Charlotte Mary von Kielmansegg, but she changed the baptismal order of her name, placing Charlotte first, sometime after her marriage. See the Kilburn article, above. Scrope Howe is often called Emanuel Scrope Howe in biographical references, but he was baptized simply Scrope, so he is called Scrope in this work. See reference in Register of Baptisms for St. Andrew’s Church, Langar, below. Emanuel Scrope Howe was the name of his uncle.

  3Claudia Gold, The King’s Mistress: The True and Scandalous Story of the Woman Who Stole the Heart of George I (London, 2012), pp. 171, 174. For Alexander Pope cite, see p. 174.

  4Ragnhild Marie Hatton, George I, Elector and King (London, 1978), p. 152. Hatton locates the house in Great George Street. Gold, The King’s Mistress, pp. 129–31, 171, cite from Gold, p. 128.

  5A. T. Thomson, Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon: Mistress of the Robes to Queen Caroline (2 vols., London, 1848), vol. I, pp. 16–17.

  6Eduard Georg Ludwig Kielmansegg, Familien-Chronik Der Herren, Freiherren Und Grafen Von Kielmansegg (Leipzig und Wien, 1872; this edition: Nabu Public Domain Reprint facsimile), pp. 127–52.

  7G. N. B. Huskinson, “The Howe Family and Langar Hall 1650 to 1800,” Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 1952 (vol. 56), p. 54; DRO: Okeover Papers, D231M/E 5178: Survey book of part of the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire estate of the Rt. Hon. Scrope Lord Viscount Howe, Baron of Cleonelly in Langar, Barnstone, Granby and Hose (1706).

  8CPE, vol. 8, pp. 133–38; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/howe-john-i-grobham-1625-79 [accessed Nov. 1, 2019].

  9http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/howe-sir-scrope-1648-1713 [accessed Nov. 1, 2019]; CPE, vol. 8, p. 142.

  10Huskinson, “The Howe Family and Langar Hall,” p. 54; Robert Thoroton, “Parishes: Langar & Barneston and St. Aubrey’s,” in Thoroton’s History of Nottinghamshire: Volume 1, Republished With Large Additions By John Throsby, ed. John Throsby (Nottingham, 1790), pp. 201–9. British History Online: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/thoroton-notts/vol1/pp.201–9 [accessed Sept. 1, 2020].

  11Hatton, George I, p. 98.

  12DRO: Okeover Papers, D231M/E 5178: Survey book of part of the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire estate of [Scrope Lord Howe]; Bodleian Library: MS. Eng. Misc. e. 452, 45865, “Volume containing accounts of personal expenditure of Scrope, 1st Viscount Howe, and memoranda and accounts of his wife Juliana, 1736-40,” Fols. 87 r-v.

  13See A. A. Hanham, “Howe, John Grobham (1657–1722)” and Stuart Handley, “Howe, Emanuel Scrope (c. 1663–1709),” ODNB Online [both accessed Nov. 1, 2019].

  14B. H. Blacker, “Howe, Charles (1661–1742),” rev. by Adam Jacob Levin, ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 1, 2019]; Huskinson, “The Howe Family and Langar Hall,” p. 55.

  15Scrope was baptized on July 18, 1699. His sisters Mary, Juliana, and Anne were baptized, respectively, on October 8, 1700, October 24, 1701, and May 7, 1704. A brother Richard, baptized March 14, 1703, died in childhood: Notts. Archives, Register of baptisms for St. Andrew’s Church, Langar, PR/6822.

  16Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England (New Haven and London: 1998), pp. 72–86.

  17NLI, Westport Estate Papers [MS 40,909/7 (14)], Letter of Scrope Howe to [Juliana] Howe, Nov. 20, 1716.

  18BNA: Stamford Mercury, Sept. 22, 1720; Ipswich Journal, Nov. 19, 1720.

  19Caroline was born May 17, 1722. City of Westminster Archives Centre, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Baptisms, m/f 11.

  20Charlotte—baptized Sophia Charlotte—was born August 27, 1723. George Augustus was born on November 29, 1724. City of Westminster Archives Centre, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Baptisms, m/f 11, m/f 12; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/howe-richard-1726-99 [accessed Nov. 1, 2019].

  21John is listed as the fourth son, who died in infancy, CPE, vol. 8, p. 144. His birth date is not given. He was buried at Langar on May 26, 1731: Notts. Archives, Register of burials for St. Andrew’s Church, Langar, PR/6828.

  22William was born on August 10, 1729, http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/howe-hon-william-1729-1814 [accessed Nov. 1, 2019].

  23Thomas was baptized on March 12, 1730/31 (old style). Juliana was baptized at Langar on September 13, 1732: Notts. Archives, Register of baptisms for St. Andrew’s Church, Langar, PR/6823. Mary was born in Barbados.

  24Scrope died on October 26, 1728. BC: The Daily Post, Jan. 2, 1729.

  25Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 (1st ed., London, 1977; abridged and rev. ed., London, 1979), p. 257.

  26BL-AP, 75633, CH/LS, Sept. 30, 1788; on the adoption of riding habits by women during the century, see Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783 (Oxford and New York, 1989), p. 602.

  27See map, “Plan of the Lordships of Langar and Barnstone dated 1818,” in the possession of John Wallwin of Newlands Farm, Langar, and reproduced with his permission in “Langar in 1818,” by Nigel Wood, http://www.langarbarnstone.com/local/local-history/langar-in-1818/.

  28My description of the village is based on a historical tour of Langar conducted by Nigel Wood, March 19, 2015.

  29Thomson, Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon, vol. I, pp. 247–48.

  30BC: London Evening Post, July 14–16, 1730.

  31T. F. Dale, The History of the Belvoir Hunt (1899), pp. 5–6, 27, 32–33.

  32Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter, pp. 273–74.

  33Andrew Thompson, George II: King and Elector (London and New Haven, 2011), p. 21.

  34See Ellen T. Harris, George Frideric Handel: A Life with Friends (W. W. Norton, 2014), pp. 32, 65–66.

  35NRS, Papers of Major William Howe: Accounts Incurred in Paris, 1716-1718, RH15/17/12.

  36George C. Brauer, The Education of a Gentl
eman: Theories of Gentlemanly Education in England, 1660-1775 (New York, 1959), pp. 74–76.

  37William was sent to Nottingham School on May 5, 1736. Bodleian Library: MS. Eng. Misc. e. 452, 45865, “Volume containing accounts of personal expenditure of Scrope, 1st Viscount Howe,” fol. 7v. Richard began at Westminster School in 1732, http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/howe-richard-1726-99 [accessed Nov. 1, 2019]. On Richard at Eton, see Richard Arthur Austin-Leigh, The Eton College Register 1698-1752 (Eton, 1927), p. 184.

  38Adam Thomas, History of Nottingham High School (1958), p. 95. I am grateful to Yvette Gunther, Head Librarian and Archivist at Nottingham High School, for drawing this book to my attention. See also John Knifton, Lauda Finem: The History of Nottingham High School [Kindle book], 2012.

  39Cited in Maldwyn A. Jones, “Sir William Howe: Conventional Strategist,” George Athan Billias, ed., George Washington’s Generals and Opponents: Their Exploits and Leadership (1st ed., New York, 1964, 1969; this ed., Da Capo Press, 1994), p. 64.

  40Gruber, pp. 47–48; Barrow, p. 119.

  41BL-AP, 75611, CH/LS, March 12, 1767; 75613, CH/LS, Aug. 3, 1775; 75614, CH/LS, Jan. 2, 1780; Jan. 5, 1780; 75615, CH/LS, Sat., April 15, 1780.

  42Rosemary Baird, Mistress of the House: Great Ladies and Grand Houses 1670-1830 (London, 2003), p. 20.

  43Baird, Mistress of the House, pp. 17–18, 20, Montagu cite from p. 19; Flora Fraser, The English Gentlewoman (London, 1987), pp. 117–20.

  44“Memoir of the Honourable Mrs. Howe,” The Lady’s Magazine (July 1818). I am indebted to Martin Price for drawing my attention to this article.

  45Earl Spencer and Christopher Dobson, eds., Letters of David Garrick and Georgiana Countess Spencer 1759-1779 (Cambridge, 1960), p. 22.

  46They married on May 27, 1725. CPE, vol. 8, p. 143. Cites from The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany, ed. Lady Llanover (3 vols.; London, 1861), vol. I, pp. 153–54.

  47http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/page-sir-gregory-1668-1720;CharlesSebag-Montefiore, “Page, Sir Gregory, second baronet (1689–1775),” ODNB Online [both accessed Nov. 1, 2019].

  48Mary married Thomas Herbert, the 8th Earl of Pembroke, on June 14, 1725. CPE, vol. 8, p. 143.

  49George Sherburn, ed., Correspondence of Alexander Pope (5 vols., Oxford, 1956), vol. 2, pp. 201–2.

  50John Wilson Croker, ed., Letters to and From Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, and her second husband, the Hon. George Berkeley (2 vols., London, 1824), vol. 1, pp. xxxi, 35–36, 38, 40–41, 49.

  51Lucy Moore, Amphibious Thing: The Life of Lord Hervey (London, New York, and Ringwood [Hants.], 2000), p. 14.

  52NRS, GD40/9/144 Letters of Sophia Howe et al.: GD40/9/144/5: S[ophia] Howe to Mrs Howard, nd; GD40/9/144/8: [Sophia Howe] to Mrs Howard, nd.

  53See Institute of Historical Research, Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Royal Households, Caroline Princess of Wales, 1714-1727, http://www.history.ac.uk/publications/office/caroline [accessed October 19, 2015].

  54Croker, ed., Letters to and From Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, vol. 1, p. 36. See also advertisement for a new novel based on the story of Lowther and Howe, The Reclaimed Libertine, in BC: Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, May 21, 1773.

  55Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, pp. 188–89.

  56R. O. Bucholz, “Herbert, Thomas, eighth earl of Pembroke and fifth earl of Montgomery (1656/7–1733), ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 1, 2019]; Coker, ed. Letters to and From Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, vol. 1, pp. 191–92; James Wharncliffe and W. Moy Thomas, eds., Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (2 vols., 3rd ed., London, 1861), vol. 2, p. 12fn.

  57John, Lord Hervey, Memoirs of the Reign of George II from his accession to the death of Queen Caroline (2 vols., London, 1848), vol. II, p. 157.

  58On Juliana Page’s loss of a baby in 1727 or 1728, see The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany, vol. 1, p. 153.

  59Valerie Rumbold, “Madan, Judith (1702–1781),” ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 1, 2019]; Pat Rogers, The Alexander Pope Encyclopedia (Westport, CT, 2004), pp. 73, 161.

  60Thomson, Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon, vol. 1, pp. 229–31, 236, 240; The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer, vol. 46, pp. 656–57.

  61BNA: Caledonian Mercury, Aug. 16, 1725.

  62R. O. Bucholz, “Seymour, Charles, sixth duke of Somerset (1662–1748),” ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 1, 2019].

  63The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany, vol. 1, p. 173. They were married on May 8, 1728: CPE, vol. 8, p. 143.

  64Hugh Stokes, The Devonshire House Circle (London, 1967), p. 172.

  65John B. Hattendorf, “Mordaunt, Charles, third earl of Peterborough and first earl of Monmouth (1658?–1735),” ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 1, 2019].

  66Lawrence Stone, Uncertain Unions: Marriage in England, 1660-1753 (Oxford, 1992), pp. 230–31.

  Two: Diaspora

  1Reed Browning, “Holles, Thomas Pelham, duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and first duke of Newcastle under Lyme (1693–1768),” ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 14, 2019]; Reed Browning, The Duke of Newcastle (New Haven and London, 1975), pp. 28, 30–31.

  2Brian Hill, The Early Parties and Politics in Britain, 1688-1832 (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London, 1996), p. 25; H. T. Dickinson, Liberty and Property: Political Ideology in Eighteenth-Century Britain (London, 1977), pp. 93, 126–28.

  3Frank O’Gorman, Voters, Patrons, and Parties: The Unreformed Electoral System of Hanoverian England 1734-1832 (Oxford, 1989), pp. 178–79.

  4Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (3 vols., London, 1964), vol. I, pp. 47, 355; O’Gorman, Voters, Patrons, and Parties, pp. 21, 141–43.

  5Browning, The Duke of Newcastle, pp. 29, 34; Namier and Brooke, The History of Parliament, vol. I, p. 51.

  6Browning, The Duke of Newcastle, pp. 30–31; O’Gorman, Voters, Patrons, and Parties, p. 143.

  7The pleasure gardens at Langar Hall were extended. See DRO: Okeover Papers, D231M/E 5178: Survey book of part of the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire estate of [Scrope Lord Howe]; see also K. Tweedale Meaby, Nottinghamshire: Extracts from the County Records of the Eighteenth Century (Nottingham, 1947), p. 197.

  8Cannon, Aristocratic Century, p. 139.

  9http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/howe-emanuel-scrope-1699-1735 [accessed Nov. 14, 2019].

  10Richard S. Dunn, “Servants and Slaves: The Recruitment and Employment of Labor,” in Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole, eds., Colonial British America: Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era (Baltimore and London, 1984), pp. 165–66, 172.

  11Ian K. Steele, The English Atlantic 1675-1740: An Exploration of Communication and Community (Oxford, 1986), p. 283.

  12http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/howe-george-augustus-1724-58 and http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/howe-richard-1726-99 [accessed Nov. 14, 2019]. See also BC: Daily Post, Dec. 21, 1732.

  13Thomson, Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon, vol. I, p. 241–42. See also BC: Read’s Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, Jan. 6, 1733, and General Evening Post, June 14, 1735.

  14BC: Daily Journal, Oct. 3, 1732.

  15BC: London Evening Post, Nov. 16, 1732.

  16BC: Country Journal or The Craftsman, Nov. 4, 1732; London Evening Post, Feb. 20, 1733.

  17BC: London Evening Post, Feb. 20–22, 1733; St. James’s Evening Post, March 6–8, 1733; BNA: Derby Mercury, March 15, 1733.

  18Thomson, Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon, vol. I, pp. 241–42.

  19BNA: Derby Mercury, June 21, 1733.

  20Richard S. Dunn, “The English Sugar Islands and the Founding of South Carolina,” in Shaping Southern Society: The Colonial Experience, ed. T. H. Breen (New York, 1976), p. 56.

  21Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the
British Caribbean (Philadelphia, 2000), pp. 51–55.

  22BL-AP, 75614, CH/LS, Jan. 29, 1780.

  23Dunn, “The English Sugar Islands and the Founding of South Carolina,” p. 53.

  24BC: General Evening Post, June 14–17, 17–19, 1735; London Evening Post, May 31–June 3, 1735.

  25BC: General Evening Post, June 14–17, 17–19, 1735; London Evening Post, May 31–June 3, 1735; PCC, PROB 11/682/273, “Will of the Right Honourable Scroop Lord Viscount Howe of Ireland,” April 6, 1737.

  26BC: Daily Courant, June 28, 1735.

  27BC: General Evening Post, Sept. 30–Oct. 2, 1735; London Evening Post, October 4–7, 1735.

  28BC: Daily Gazetteer, June 30, July 3, 1735.

  29Matthew Kilburn, “Howe, (Mary Sophia) Charlotte, Viscountess Howe (1703–1782),” ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 14, 2019]; BC: General Evening Post, June 28–July 1, 1735; Read’s Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, June 21, 1735; BNA: Derby Mercury, June 26, 1735.

  30Cannon, Aristocratic Century, pp. 11–12fn, 129–30.

  31Public days were held at Langar Hall prior to Lord Howe’s death. BC: Read’s Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, Dec. 8, 1733; Daily Courant, Oct. 19, 1734.

  32Bodleian Library: MS. Eng. Misc. e. 452, 45865, “Volume containing accounts of personal expenditure of Scrope, 1st Viscount Howe,” fols. 7v, 8r, 122v; PCC, PROB 11/758/482, “Will of the Right Honourable Juliana Lady, Dowager, Widow of Epperstone,” Sept. 23, 1747.

  33PCC, PROB 11/682/273, “Will of the Right Honourable Scroop Lord Viscount Howe of Ireland,” April 6, 1737.

  34Friedrich Kielmansegge, Diary of a Journey to England in the Years 1761-1762 (1st ed., London, 1902; Elibron Classics Replica Edition, 2005), pp. 83, 229–30.

  35Sebag-Montefiore, “Page, Sir Gregory, second baronet (1689–1775),” ODNB Online [accessed Nov. 14, 2019].

  36Lady Pembroke resided in a mansion house at Parsons Green, Fulham, which she held during her lifetime. See London Metropolitan Archives: City of London, Ref. Q/SHR/101, “Articles of Agreement, on intended marriage of 2 [Hon. John Mordaunt] and 3 [Lady Mary, Countess Dowager of Pembroke],” Sept. 4, 1735.