Tyringham Howe (c1745-83)
In the course of performing routine but vital service in the American Revolutionary War, Howe distinguished himself in an action that saw his ship emerge intact from a battle with a superior enemy squadron. Sadly, he did not live long enough to enjoy the peace that followed the conflict.
He was the second of five sons of William Howe of Mislethorne, Essex, and of his wife Millicent Stephens, making him the nephew of the influential Secretary to the Admiralty from 1763-95, Philip Stephens. His older brother, Captain William Howe of the navy, died in 1760, two other brothers were a captain of marines, and an MP and lieutenant-colonel in the army. A sister, Millicent, married Captain Thomas Wilkinson RN. These Howes do not seem to have been related to the more famous aristocratic Howe family .
Tyringham Howe was commissioned lieutenant on 10 September 1765, being about 20 years of age, and over the next couple of years he saw peace-time service on the Jamaican station aboard the Active 28, Captain Robert Carkett, before the frigate returned to England.
In 1770 he married a widow, Elizabeth Stein, at Ross in County Cork – the couple would later settle in Thames Ditton, Surrey, but had no children.
With the country still at peace, Howe was promoted commander of the sloop Vulture 14 on 28 December 1770, which vessel he brought home from Antigua, although she had to make a detour to Ireland after she lost a mast. Upon reaching England, the Vulture was paid off in May 1771 at Deptford. In July 1772 he was appointed to the sloop Cruizer 8, which in early September sailed from Portsmouth for Boston, but then had to divert to the Carolinas, arriving on 10 November after suffering bad weather and a shortage of provisions. She then made her way north to New York ., and she later saw service off the Carolinas, off Virginia, and at Rhode Island.
On 11 January 1775, Howe was posted captain of the Glasgow 20 by Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves after her previous captain, William Maltby, had been dismissed for driving her onto the rocks at Halifax. As the American Revolution began, his command saw service at Boston where she was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill on 17 June. Placed off the point at New Boston to fire on the rebels, it was reported that she had the misfortune to drive ashore at the only location where the light cavalry could have been landed.
On 6 April 1776 the Glasgow fought a two-hour engagement in the dark of night off Block Island near Rhode Island with a superior American squadron. Led by Captain Esek Hopkins, the makeshift rebel force included the Alfred 24, Columbus 20, Andrea Doria 14, Cabot 14 and Providence 12. The Glasgow repelled the enemy assaults, and after a gallant resistance in which she suffered some damage aloft, made good her escape. Her casualties were one dead and three wounded, with two dozen casualties reported on the American side.
On 12 May 1776 the Glasgow sailed for home from Rhode Island escorting several transports carrying refugees from Boston, and bringing with her dispatches from General Sir William Howe, together with two thousand private letters from North America. Shortly afterwards, orders arrived for the Glasgow to be docked at Plymouth, and here the number of holes in her stern resulting from her engagement with Hopkins’ squadron drew excited comment.
In August 1776 Howe recommissioned the frigate Thames 32 at Portsmouth, sailing on 4 December for North America with sixteen victuallers under convoy, and carrying 100,000 guineas for the Army and Navy paymasters. Arriving at New York in early March after what was described as a ‘tedious and turbulent passage’, the frigate was later posted to the Delaware Capes where she captured several American merchant ships and the Virginia naval brig Raleigh 10 on 27 April 1777. By the summer she was off the Virginia Capes and in Chesapeake Bay, but her crew fell victim to a virulent fever that left dozens of men dead, and Howe indisposed. In late September the Glasgow left New York with a convoy of 28 vessels to arrive off the Delaware Capes a week later, and here she joined the campaign to capture Philadelphia. Howe later sat on the court martial into the loss on 23 October of the Augusta 64 (Captain Francis Reynolds) in the Delaware River.
Continuing on the North American station, during the winter of 1777-78 the Glasgow took a French ship, the St. Pierre, that had been bound to Boston, but otherwise she was engaged in the unrewarding work of convoy duty, such as escorting ships from New York to Philadelphia in May, and for Rhode Island in December. Some relief at least came when the Glasgow joined Commodore Sir George Collier’s expedition against the colonial forces on the Connecticut coast in the summer of 1779.
During the winter of 1779-80 the Thames was among a number of men-of-war that became iced up in New York, with conditions so bad that sleighs were used to deliver provisions, and detachments of cavalry were able to cross the ice between the city and Staten Island. As the senior captain in the port, Howe offered the services of his ships’ crews to the commandant, Major-General James Pattison, in the event of an attack by the Americans. Thereafter the Thames’ uneventful duties continued as before, until after four and a half years away, she returned to England from New York in July 1781 with a convoy of thirty vessels, paying off at Deptford in September. During his time commanding the Thames, Howe had captured at least twenty American merchant vessels, either alone or in company with another Royal Navy vessel. Returning with him in the Thames was a 15-year-old black slave girl whom he had purchased in America, and who would later be christened Charlotte Howe*.
Captain Howe did not see any further service, and in June 1783, (in his 38th year) he died after what appears to have been a lengthy period of ill health. He was buried in St. Nicholas Church, Thames Ditton.
• Charlotte Howe’s troubled life story can be found on the ‘All things Georgian’ website.