HOWELL, David (c.1751-1804), of Lanbaren, Lanteglos, nr. Fowey, Cornw.

Howell was again returned for Mitchell on the interest of Sir Francis Basset in 1790, the year he joined Brooks’s Club. He voted for Lemon and St. Aubyn in the county election and continued at first to give a silent support to opposition. He voted at least nine times with them, notably on the Oczakov question and against the Russian armament, 12 Apr. 1791, 1 Mar. 1792; possibly for repeal of the Test Act in Scotland, which was his listed attitude on that question in the 1791 session; with Fox against the war with France and against the address, 18 Feb. and 17 June 1793, 21 Jan. 1794; for Harrison’s motion in favour of taxing placemen, 8 Apr., and against the suspension of habeas corpus, 16, 17 May 1794. Like his patron he was supposed to be a Portland Whig (December 1792) and after the duke joined the government, no further vote against them is recorded, though he was listed ‘doubtful’ by the Treasury. He was an absentee in November 1795, required to attend on 8 Dec.2CJ, li. 103. His patron having disposed of his interest at Mitchell, Howell was not again in Parliament and died at Bath in 1804, leaving his estate to his only son David, then at school at Lostwithiel. He left an annuity to Elizabeth Ann Crouch who ‘lived with me as a servant in America’.3PCC 824 Heseltine. Dated 3 Apr. and resealed 10 Nov. 1803; proved 31 Dec. 1804.