Background
Howell was born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1747. He was the son of Aaron and Sarah Howell.
Howell was born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1747. He was the son of Aaron and Sarah Howell.
He received his early education at Hopewell Academy, Hopewell, N. J. , under the supervision of the Rev. Isaac Eaton, a Baptist clergyman who was the first of that denomination to establish in America a school for the higher education of young men. From Hopewell Howell went to the College of New Jersey, from which he was graduated in 1766. At the Academy he had been a fellow student of the brilliant James Manning, who had recently assumed the presidency of a new Baptist college in Rhode Island. In 1769, after three years as tutor, he was given the degree of A. M.
Rhode Island College gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1793.
James Manning invited Howell to share the task of teaching with him. Howell accepted and thus began with Brown University, which was then known as Rhode Island College, a connection which, under varying relationships, was to last throughout his life. In 1769 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy and mathematics. In addition to these subjects, which he was engaged to teach at a salary of £72, he also taught French, German, and Hebrew. He had need to be a scholar of varied abilities, since for some years Manning and he were the only members of the college faculty.
He continued as professor until 1779, when, owing to the Revolutionary War, all college exercises were temporarily suspended. In 1768 he had been admitted to the bar, and in the field of law, which he now entered, he was destined to become exceptionally successful. From 1790 to 1824 he bore the title of professor of jurisprudence, but in point of fact he did no more teaching nor lecturing. He continued to be intimately interested in the welfare of the institution, however; from 1773 to 1824 he was a member of the board of fellows, and he was secretary of the corporation from 1780 to 1806. After Manning's death, Howell acted for a brief time (1791 - 92) as president ad interim, and on several occasions he presided at college commencements.
He was associate justice of the supreme court of the state from 1786 to 1787, attorney general in 1789, and United States judge of Rhode Island from 1812 to 1824. From 1782 to 1785 he was a member of Congress under the Confederation, and he was appointed by President Washington a boundary commissioner in connection with the Jay Treaty of 1794. His particular concern in this matter was to assist in determining the true course of the St. Croix River.
He was a tall, handsome man of imposing bearing, an accomplished scholar, an excellent public speaker, and possessed of a brilliant wit, all of which attributes contributed to his preeminence as a lawyer.
On September 30, 1770, he was married to Mary Brown, a daughter of Jeremiah Brown, one of the early pastors of the First Baptist Church of Providence. They had five children, one of whom, Jeremiah, became a United States senator.