Ann Howe was a newspaper proprietor in the colony of New South Wales who published a paper which vigorously supported the liberal Governor Richard Bourke and represented the emancipist voice.
Background
She was born in Sydney, the child of two ex-convicts: Sarah Bird, the colony"s first female publican, and John Morris. In December 1821 she married Robert Howe, the son and heir of George Howe, an ex-convict and successful publisher of the Sydney Gazette and printer of government publications, who had recently died.
Career
She claimed the executors, Richard Jones, and Review Ralph Mansfield (editor of the paper), had run the business down and were about to accept a low price when she persuaded a reluctant Jones to let her manage lieutenant She aligned the paper with Bourke, and against the conservative "exclusives" (who were opposed to wider democracy in the colony and participation of ex-convicts in public life).
The exclusives were represented by the Herald.
In retaliation, Watt was brought before the bench on trumped up charges, but Bourke had him removed to Portuguese Macquarie, where the Howes had a land grant on the Macleay River. Richard Jones then used his power as executor and of guarantor of outstanding loans to transfer ownership of the paper to Howe"s eldest son, Anne"s stepson, Robert Charles.
Watt drowned in 1837 in Portuguese Macquarie. In 1840, Ann married Thomas Salmon, a butcher, and lived with him in George Street, Sydney.
She died in 1842.