Author: HOWES, Francis
Biography:
HOWES, Francis (1776-1844: ODNB)
He was born on 29 Feb. 1776 and baptised on 3 Mar. at Fritton, Norfolk, in the diocese of Norwich, the fourth son of the rector of Fritton, Thomas Howes, and his wife Susan Longe. From Norwich grammar School he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge (matric. 1794, BA 1798, MA 1804), where he was a prize-winning student. Ordained deacon in 1800 and priest in 1801, he held various small livings in different counties, some of them concurrently (as was common practice) but from about 1811 he was able to consolidate them in Norfolk, where he was among other things rector of Buckenham (1811-14), stipendiary curate of Acle (1814), vicar of Bawburgh (1814-29), a minor canon of Norwich cathedral (1814-16), and curate of St. George Colgate in Norwich (1814-31). On 23 Mar. 1802 he married Sarah Smithson (1773-1863) at King’s Lynn; they went on to have nine children, several of whom were baptised at Acle. His first collection of translations, Miscellaneous Poetical Translations (1806), was also dated from there. It contains, besides translations, a few original poems “after” or in imitation of the authors cited. From 1815 the family lived in the cathedral close of Norwich, where Howes died on 26 Mar. 1844. He was buried in the cathedral. His ambitious translation of Horace appeared in parts in 1841 and 1842, with a final instalment published by his son in 1845. (ODNB 28 Feb. 2025; ancestry.com 28 Feb. 2025; findmypast.com 28 Feb. 2025; CCEd 28 Feb. 2025; ACAD) HJ