Born 22 August 1754, he was son of Thomas Howe (died 1776), rector of Great Wishford and Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. His mother was Frances, daughter of Thomas White of Tattingstone, near Ipswich, Suffolk. He matriculated at The Queen"s College, Oxford, on 29 October
1772, but left without a degree after three years" residence, and took up residence at his mother"s house at Ipswich.
Howe was educated first at Harrow School, where he gave early signs of what was to be a lifelong interest in the stage and the turf.
His mother died in 1778. Late in life he lived in the house of a surgeon named Penrice at Great Yarmouth, and devoted himself to a study of Shakespeare. He was buried, as he had directed, beside his mother in Saint Matthew"s churchyard, Ipswich, on the fifth day after his death.
The inscription on his monument in Saint Matthew"s Church describes him as a man of cultivated tastes and of Whig sympathies.
He left much money to his friend Penrice. Chedworth"s relatives unsuccessfully disputed his will on the ground of insanity.
