Howe, Admiral Richard, 1st Earl Howe (1726–1799)

Abstract Richard Howe, 4th Viscount Howe and then 1st Earl Howe, was a prominent British naval officer in the War of American Independence and the conflict with revolutionary France. He was born on March 19, 1726, the second son of Emanuel Scrope Howe, 2nd Viscount Howe, and his wife Mary Sophia Charlotte, the daughter of Baron von Kielmansegg. Richard's older and younger brothers joined the army, but Richard himself was destined for a career at sea. He appears to have served on a merchant ship before entering the navy in July 1739. Howe was actively employed in the war against Spain that began that year; he was involved in the operations against the Spanish Central American coast in 1743. Howe also was engaged against the Jacobites in Scotland, receiving a wound in the head in an action with French privateers in 1746. By the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, he was a flag‐captain in the West Indies. Howe was with Admiral Boscawen's fleet off the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in June 1755, and was therefore present in the first naval action of the next Anglo‐French struggle, the Seven Years' War. He distinguished himself in 1757 in the unsuccessful expedition against the French port of Rochefort, by attacking the fort on the Isle d'Aix at close range. Howe was also employed in the attacks on Saint‐Malo and Cherbourg the following year. He served at the British victory at Quiberon Bay in 1759, and then on blockade duties helping to confine the shattered French navy to its ports.