HOWE, George Augustus, 3rd Visct. Howe [I] (?1724-58), of Langar, Notts.

During Howe’s minority and for some years afterwards his aunt, Lady Pembroke, managed the family’s political interests in Nottinghamshire.See MORDAUNT, Hon. John. At a by-election for Nottingham in May 1747, when Howe himself was serving in Flanders, she allowed the corporation to set him up against an opposition candidate. Newcastle refused his support and none of the Howes appeared at the election, though it was reported locally that ‘the women of the Howe family’, i.e. Lady Pembroke and her sister-in-law, the Dowager Lady Howe, ‘were perpetually teazing Lady Yarmouth to intermeddle in his favour’. The corporation spent a good deal of money, but Howe was heavily defeated.

At the dissolution in June it was given out that Howe would be standing for the county as well as for the borough. In the county, however, he received so little support that at a meeting called to choose the Whig candidates his name was withdrawn.John Sherwin and J. S. Charlton to Newcastle, 25 May 1747, John Thornhaugh and John White to Newcastle, 9 and 24 June 1747, Add. 32711, ff. 126, 130, 277, 503. In a three-cornered contest for the borough, in which his opponents were supported by Newcastle, Lady Pembroke secured the powerful influence of the local banker, Abel Smith, by arranging for a marriage between his eldest son and her ward and cousin, Miss Howe.John Plumptre to Newcastle, 12 Aug. 1747, Add. 32712, f. 372. In Howe’s absence she made a public entry into Nottingham, playing a conspicuous part in the election, at which Howe was returned unopposed.John Plumptre and John Sherwin to Newcastle, 17 June 1747, Add. 32711, ff. 391 and 393. He was classed as a government supporter in 1747.

Howe was again returned for Nottingham in 1754, this time with Newcastle’s support. On the outbreak of war with France he served with great distinction in North America, where he was killed in a skirmish at Ticonderoga on 6 July 1758.