Ho'ward, John, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born of Roman Catholic ancestry in Onslow County, North Carolina, in 1792. His early education was lim- ited, as his father died shortly after the birth of John, and he was placed in a store at the age of twelve. He was converted in 1808, and entered the ministry in 1818 at Georgetown. In 1819 he joined the South Carolina Conference, and was stationed at Sandy River Circuit. In 1820 he was appointed to Georgetown, 1821 to Savan- nah, 1822 to Augusta, and 1823 and 1824 to Charleston. He located from 1825 till 1828, when he was appointed to the Washington and Greensborough Circuits. In 1829 and 1830 he labored on the Appalachee Circuit. In 1831 he joined the Georgia Conference, then forming, and for three years became presiding elder of the Milledgcville District. From 1834 to the time of his death in 1836, he Avas agent for the " Manual Labor School" of the Con- ference. " Mr. Howard's ministrj^, especialh' in Savan- nah, Augusta, and Charleston, was attended with marked success. He labored with great fidelity, not only in the pulpit, but with penitents at the altar, being alike fer- vent in his prayers and appropriate in his counsels. As a pastor, too, he was alwaj-s on the alert to promote the best interests of his people. Whenever there was dark- ness to be dissipated, or grief to be assuaged, or sinking hope to be encouraged, or evil of any kind to be re- moved, there he was sure to be present as an angel of mercj-." — Spraguc, A nnals of the A merican Pulpit, vii, 614 sq.
Howard, Simeon, D.D., a t'nitarian Congrega- tional minister, was bom at Bridgewater, ]\Iaine, April 29, 1733, and educated at Harvard College, where he graduated with distinguished honor in 17.58. After a course of theological study, pursued while himself en- gaged in teaching, he accepted a call to a church at Cumberland, Nova Scotia. In 1765 he returned to Cam- bridge as a resident graduate student, and was elected tutor the year following. In 1767 he accepted the pas- torate of West Church, Boston, and was ordained May 6, 1768. During the Revolution his congregation suf- fered greatly, and having made many friends during his residence in Nova Scotia, he proposed that his congre- gation should emigrate with him thither, which they (lid. After about one year and a half he returned to Boston, and again served his congregation there, receiv- ing only such compensation for his services as he was fully satisfied they could afford to give in their desti- tute circumstances. He died in the midst of his labors among them, August 13, 1804. The degree of D.D. was conferre4 on him by Edinburgh t^niversity. He was an overseer and fellow of Harvard, and a member of most of the American societies for the promotion of lit- erarj^, charitable, and religious objects, and an officer of several of them. Dr. Howard was '• bland and gentle in his manner, calm and equable in his temper, cheerful without levity, and serious without gloom. . . . His
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parishioners loved him as a brother, and honored him as a father; his brethren in the ministry always met him with a grateful and cordial welcome; and tlie com- munity at large reverenced him for his simplicity, in- tegrity, and benevolence." Dr. Howard published Ser- mons "(1773, 1777, 1778, 1780): — Christians have no Cause to hs ashamed of their Religion (sermon, 1779): — Ordi- nation Sermon (1791). — Sprague, Annuls of the Ameri- can Pulpit, viii, G5.
Howe, Bezaleel, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was bora at Tower Hill, Dutchess County, N. Y., July 14, 1781. Ill early life he was a student of Paine and Rousseau, and for several years a professed infidel ; but the unhappy death of a notorious infidel of his acquaint- ance was the means of his conversion, and in 1823 he entered the New York Conference, in which he labored with great zeal and success nntil his death, June 25, 1851. He was fond of study, and his piety and abilities honored and edified the Chiu-ch. — Min. of Conferences, V, 533. (G. L. T.)
Howe, Charles, a distinguislied English diploma- tist nnder Charles H, was born in Gloucestersliire in IGGl. Being of a strong religious turn, he finally for- sook public life, and retired into the country, where he wrote his Devout Meditatiom (8vo : 2d ed. Edinb. 1752, 12mo ; Lond. 1824, 12mo, and often), of which the poet. Dr. Edward Young, says, " I shall never lay it far out of my reach, for a greater demonstration of a sound head and sincere heart I never saw." Howe died in 1745. — Lond. Gentl. Mag.yo\. Ixiv; Allibone, Diet, of Authors, i, 902 ; Gorton, Biog. Diet. s. v.
Howe, John, a Nonconformist divine, and one of the greatest of English theologians, who is often called the "Platonic Piu-jtan," was born May 17, 1G30, at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, where his father ■was the incumbeat of the parish church; but, having become a Nonconformist, he was ejected from his living, and retired to Ireland. He soon, however, returned to England, and settled in the town of Lancaster, where John received his rudimentary instruction from his fa- ther. He was afterwards educated at Christ College, Cambridge, but removed to Brazenose College, Oxford, of which he became the bible-clerk in 1G48, and where he for the second time took his degree of B.A. in 1G49. He was made a demy of Magdalen College by the par- liamentary visitors, and was afterwards cliosen a fel- low. In July, 1G52, he took the degree of j\I.A. Af- ter having been ordained by a Nonconformist divine, assisted by others, he became a minister at Great Tor- rington, in Devonshire. In 1C54 Cromwell appointed him his domestic chaplain. He gave some offence to the protector by one of his sermons, in v/hich lie cen- sured certain opinions about divine impulses and special impressions in answer to prayer, but retained his situa- tion till Cromwell's death, and afterwards till the depo- sition of Richard Cromwell. He then resumed and continued his ministry at Great Torrington till the Act of Uniformity, August, 16G2, obliged him to restrict his preaching to private houses. He went to Ireland in 1G71, where he resided as cliaplain to the family of lord Massarene, enjoying there the friendship of the bishop of that diocese. Howe was granted liberty to preach in all tlic churches under the jurisdiction of this bishop. He wrote at this time his Vanifi/ of Man as Mortal, and began his greatest work. The Living Temple, be- low referred to. In 1675 he accepted an invitation to become the minister of a congregation in London. Dur- ing the year 1680 he engaged in a controversy with Drs. Stillingticct and Tillotson on the question of nonconfor- mity, and it is said that Dr. Stillingtleet, who had pro- voked the controversy by a discourse which he preach- ed before the lord mayor and aldermen of London on "The Mischief of Separation," was subdued when he read Howe's reply, and confessed that he discoursed "more like a gentleman than a divine, without any mixture of rancor, or any sharp refiections, and sonic-