HOWARD, Sir William (c.1599-1672), of Tollesbury, Essex.

Howard’s career at court and in Parliament was shaped by his membership of one of the most powerful families in England and overshadowed by those of his four brothers who survived past their mid-twenties – Theophilus†, Lord Howard de Walden and (from 1626) 2nd earl of Suffolk; Thomas Howard†, created 1st earl of Berkshire in 1625; Sir Robert Howard*; and Edward Howard*, created Baron Howard of Escrick in 1628. Until the outbreak of civil war much of his life is also difficult to distinguish from that of two first cousins and namesakes: the heir of the Catholic bibliophile and antiquary Lord William Howard (d. 1640) of Naworth, who was knighted in 1623 and died in 1642; and the fifth son of Thomas Howard, 14th earl of Arundel, who was made KB at the age of 14 in 1626 and who with his Catholic wife was granted the barony of Stafford in September 1640.18‘Lord William Howard (1563-1640)’, ‘William Howard (1612-1680)’, Oxford DNB; ‘Sir William Howard’, HP Commons 1604-1629. This MP appears not to have shared his cousins’ habitual or occasional adherence to Catholicism, but in a family where religious allegiance did not consistently preclude public office, he cannot be assumed to be more likely than his namesakes to have held it.

The political eclipse in the later 1610s of his father, the 1st earl of Suffolk, erstwhile lord chamberlain and lord treasurer, may have slowed Howard’s full entry into court. However, his elder brother Thomas, master of Prince Charles’s horse and on the rise, probably obtained for him the privy chamber position he was occupying in 1623. Suffolk was still the major electoral patron at Cricklade, where Thomas had sat before his elevation to the peerage, and thus was presumably responsible for Sir William’s return three times in the mid-1620s. Partly because of illness, he made little impact in the Commons and was not re-elected in 1628, perhaps because his father had by that time died.19‘Sir William Howard’, HP Commons 1604-1629.

In 1627 Howard, who evidently shared Suffolk’s passion for building, leased ground from his brother Berkshire’s father-in-law William Cecil, 2nd earl of Salisbury, in the fashionable parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Enclosing the land, he constructed a house of up to 40 hearths, but according to Salisbury’s servant George Garrard*, early in 1634 he gave it to his younger brother Howard of Escrick, who had pressing debts. The latter sold it to Lord Newport for £2,500.20Survey of London, xxxiii/xxxiv, 339-60, 441-72; Strafforde Letters, i. 207. Such property investment, even if fleeting, makes it likely this Sir William was the commissioner for new buildings in London in 1630 and 1634.21Rymer, Foedera, viii. pt. 3, p. 114; Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 234. Less plausibly, he was also a commissioner for river navigation in Surrey.22HP Commons 1604-1629. Court duties appear to have precluded other local office. They were crowned in 1639 when he became lieutenant of the gentleman pensioners, of which his eldest brother had once been captain; the office was later reckoned to be worth £300 a year.23LJ ix. 57b.

Sir William’s election to Parliament on 23 March 1640 as junior member for Old Sarum is likely to have been at the behest of Salisbury, who controlled the borough jointly with Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke.24C219/42, pt. ii , no. 63. The latter’s patronage was probably concentrated on the return of Edward Herbert*, although as lord chamberlain Pembroke must have been well acquainted with Howard. Sir William’s contribution to parliamentary proceedings was as slight as on previous occasions. He received his sole committee appointment at the beginning of the three-week session, being nominated to prepare a conference with the Lords over the proposed fast day, and he made no recorded speech.25CJ ii. 4a.

In July 1640 Howard waited on Sir Francis Windebanke* to represent to the secretary of state the inability of his twenty-year-old nephew, James Howard, 3rd earl of Suffolk, to pay off the huge debt inherited from the 2nd earl, who had died a month earlier.26CSP Dom. 1640, p. 458; ‘James Howard (1619-1689)’, ‘Theophilus Howard’, Oxford DNB. That Sir William was enlisted for the task instead of one of his brothers is a rare indication of his potential abilities, or of his relative closeness to what was to become the parliamentarian side of the family, or both. The divided loyalties which became apparent later may explain his failure to be elected to Parliament that autumn.

On the outbreak of the civil wars Howard stayed at his post in the royal household, accompanying Charles I to Oxford.27D’Ewes, Autobiography, ii. 303. But he seems to have tried to stay aloof from the conflict, unlike Berkshire and Sir Robert Howard, who fought for the king, and Howard of Escrick and young Suffolk, who sided with Parliament. In 1645 he was living with four servants in a house in St Aldate’s parish in Oxford, near the royalist headquarters at Christ Church.28Toynbee, Young, Strangers in Oxford, 234. Eventually he appears to have forfeited the king’s trust, or so it was glossed. He compounded for delinquency on 4 April 1646, in advance of the surrender of the city that June, and was fined £500 on 14 May.29CCC 1165. An ordinance for discharge from delinquency passed in the Commons in June and November.30CJ iv. 564b, 727a. Sitting on 5 March 1647 peers including Howard of Escrick noted that Sir William had already paid £250 and resolved to remit the remainder, ‘in regard he hath lost his place of Lieutenant of the Pensioners ... given to Mr Villiers, and was looked upon by the king's party as a person that adhered to the Parliament’.31LJ ix. 57b.

Before 22 June 1649 Howard had been imprisoned for a debt contracted in the 1630s with Berkshire and Howard of Escrick.32CCAM 606. Disclosing various debts to the Committee for Compounding a few days later, he revealed that in turn he was owed a total of £4,000 by parliamentarian peers Salisbury and his one-time son-in-law Algernon Percy†, 4th earl of Northumberland. These complex financial obligations may have given Sir William some leverage in negotiating his release (ordered 22 Aug.) but he still became liable for an additional fine, and in the meantime was kept on a short leash, needing a licence in August 1650 to attend the Essex assizes as a witness. His estate was finally discharged in September.33CCC 1165; CCAM 606; CSP Dom. 1650, p. 270. In January 1655 he was taxed £9 by the Essex commissioners as a former delinquent.34TSP iv. 435.

Following the Restoration Howard was placed on at least one local commission.35C181/6, pp. 7, 104. Otherwise he seems to have lived in retirement for the remainder of his life. In his will, drafted on 7 July 1672, he left £100 to his nephew Suffolk, £150 between various servants, and the residue, including Tollesbury, to his brother Howard of Escrick. He died unmarried before 7 August, when his will was proved.36PROB11/339/466.