HOWLAND, Robert (1545-c.1607), of Gray’s Inn and Seething Lane, London.

One of Howland’s elder brothers, Richard, was bishop of Peterborough 1585-1600, a position he probably owed to Lord Burghley, often parliamentary patron at Peterborough, and doubtless responsible for the return of Howland himself. Another brother, Giles, was a London alderman. In December 1585 when Nicholas Fuller declined the post of solicitor in Ireland, Howland, ‘very well-learned’ and with ‘no charge of wife or children’ was one of a short list of five candidates he suggested instead. In 1589 Howland was fined 100 marks for refusing to read at Gray’s Inn. He died between 20 Apr. 1606 and 28 July 1607.1Rylands Eng. ms. 309; DNB (Howland, Richard); A. B. Beaven, Aldermen, ii. 48; Lansd. 46, f. 57 seq.; CSP Ire. 1586-8, p. 45; G. Inn Pens. Bk. i. 86; PCC 23 Lyon, 65 Huddleston.