John Howe (loyalist)

John Howe was the son of Joseph Howe, a tin plate worker of Puritan ancestry, and Rebeccah Hart. John was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1754. He was a loyalist printer during the American Revolution, a printer and Postmaster in Halifax, the father of the famous Joseph Howe and eventually a Magistrate of the Colony of Nova Scotia.

John Howe's Later Years

After his brief career as a spy, John returned to his usual work as printer and postmaster in Halifax. On October 16, 1808, John Howe's eldest son, John Howe, Jr., married Henrietta Hians. In 1810, John Howe was appointed Justice of the Peace and Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. On October 9, 1813, his eldest son, John Howe, Jr., married Elizabeth M. Gethens. In 1815, John Howe was given a special commission as Justice "for the better and more effective administration of the office of Justice of the Peace and for the establishment of an active, vigorous and effectual Police." John Howe played a role in the establishment of a "House of Correction" and improving the police in Halifax by having "the daily attendance of one Magistrate in some Public Office in Halifax, for managing the Police of the Town." With his growing duties as a Magistrate, John Howe retired from his offices as King's Printer and Postmaster in 1818, appointments that were then awarded to his son, John Howe, Jr.

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As mentioned, John Howe was a religious man and a convert to the Sandemanian church. In Halifax, John served as an elder of the Sandemanian church, he served as a lay preacher to the community of 2000 blacks that fled the United States during the War of 1812 and settled in Halifax, and he made regular Sunday visits to the prison to preach to the inmates. He was a practicing pacifist, yet on at least one occasion he knocked together the heads of two young men who were fighting on the Sabbath.

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After his retirement from his offices of King's Printer and Postmaster, John Howe continued to be active, serving as a magistrate. In 1822, Sarah Foster Howe, John's seventh child married Daniel Langshaw, but in 1824, Sarah Foster (Howe) Langshaw died aboard ship on her way from Liverpool, England, to Lima, Peru, where she was planning to move with her husband. In 1826, John Howe's sixth child, David Howe, also died. But a happier family event followed on February 2, 1828, when Joseph Howe, John Howe's youngest child, married Catherine Susan Ann McNab. After this marriage, John Howe helped to produce his son's, Joseph Howe's, newspaper together with Joseph's wife, particularly when Joseph traveled.

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John Howe was a serving magistrate when his youngest son, Joseph Howe, was charged with criminal libel for printing an anonymous letter that charged that the police and magistrates had embezzled £30,000 from the people of Halifax. Joseph Howe made it clear that his father was not one of the corrupt magistrates when he argued his own defense. Joseph won an acquittal in the case on March 3, 1835, in a victory that was popularly seen as a triumph of freedom of the press and a blow to the irresponsible governance by some of the magistrates. Just over eight months after Joseph won his case, but before Joseph had begun his political career, John Howe died in his sleep on December 27, 1835, at 82 years of age.

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