HOWARD, Sir Francis (1585-1651), of Sayes Court, Chertsey and Eastwick House, Great Bookham, Surr.

Howard early adopted a naval career, and was at sea with a relative by marriage, Sir Richard Leveson*, on the accession of James I. Following Leveson’s death in August 1604, however, he pursued a career at Court, becoming a gentleman pensioner. In 1605 he accompanied his uncle, lord admiral Nottingham, to Madrid to ratify the treaty ending the war with Spain. Early in the fourth session of the king’s first Parliament he was returned for Windsor on Nottingham’s interest, but he left no record of his presence in the House. He did not sit again.

In October 1613, at around the time he married the daughter of Sir William Monson, Leveson’s successor as admiral of the Narrow Seas, Howard resumed his naval career. E351/2251; HMC Downshire, iv. 247. He obtained a grant in reversion of Monson’s office, and, during the Addled Parliament, served as Monson’s vice-admiral against pirates off the Scottish coast. CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 207; Monson’s Naval Tracts, 56. He succeeded Monson in January 1616, and Nottingham appointed him lieutenant of the Admiralty at around the same time. However, his interest in naval affairs slackened on Nottingham’s resignation a few years later, whereupon he vacated the lieutenancy and sold his office as admiral of the Narrow Seas to Henry Mervyn* for £3,500. W. Camden, Annals, 651; SP16/6/134. In 1622 it was reported that by one newsletter writer that he served as vice admiral to the earl of Oxford in 1622, but that position was actually supplied by Sir Francis Stewart*: T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Jas. I, ii. 289; E351/2260. In 1620 Howard succeeded to his brother’s estate, which included the patent for Dungeness lighthouse, control over which was debated in the third Jacobean Parliament. Howard avoided further trouble with this patent by assigning his half share of the profits to William Bullock. CD 1621, ii. 395; iii. 321; vi. 80; CJ, i. 567b; G.G. Harris, Trin. House, 189. His name again came before the House in April 1624, when he was presented as being suspected of recusancy, but though he indignantly offered ‘to clear himself’ he was replaced as custos rotulorum of the Surrey bench in May. CJ, i. 776b; ‘Nicholas 1624’, ff. 180v-1. In January 1626 he subscribed £20 to the Privy Seal loan, but the following August Buckingham replaced him as vice-admiral of Kent. A.R. Bax, ‘The Names of those Persons in the County of Surr. who contributed to the Loan to King Chas. I’, Surr. Arch. Colls. xvii. 80. Two years later, in May 1628, he sold property in Chertsey to the Crown for £870. CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 140.

Howard seems to have spent the next decade as a country gentleman. An unsuccessful candidate for Reigate at the autumn election of 1640, he was appointed a commissioner of array in 1642, but played no apparent part in the Civil War. He was assessed by Parliament at £500 in 1644, paying at least £60, and at £1,500 a year later, and one of his sons died on the king’s side. Howard himself died intestate on 7 July 1651, and was buried at Great Bookham. In 1681 his grandson succeeded to the barony of Effingham. CCAM, 379; Manning and Bray, Surr. ii. 356; PCC Admons. 1649-54, p. 188; VCH Surr. iii. 334.