HOWARD MOLYNEUX HOWARD, Lord Henry Thomas (1766-1824), of Thornbury Castle, Glos.

Howard was returned unopposed for Steyning on the family interest in 1820, despite rumours that his brother, the 12th duke of Norfolk, would not bring him into Parliament again because of his refusal to vote against the Liverpool ministry’s Six Acts. E. Suss. RO, Ashburnham mss 3242, Egremont to Ashburnham, 1 Mar. 1820. His brother’s Catholicism debarred him from exercising the ceremonial duties of his hereditary office of earl marshal and it fell to Howard as his deputy to supervise the arrangements for George IV’s coronation. This work occupied much of his attention in 1820 and 1821, but illness prevented him from officiating at the ceremony itself, 19 July 1821. Geo. IV Letters, ii. 927; Add. 38284, f. 263; 38286, f. 3; 38289, f. 210; Gent. Mag. (1824), ii. 81. Poor health also interfered with his parliamentary attendance. He is not known to have spoken in debate in this period and his name appears in none of the surviving division lists of the first three sessions of the 1820 Parliament. He was granted lengthy periods of leave for ill health, 12 Feb., 13 Apr. 1821. He resurfaced to vote with his Whig friends for repeal of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 16 Apr., parliamentary reform, 24 Apr., and the Scottish juries bill, 20 June 1823. He divided against the grant for building new churches, 9 Apr., and for repeal of the assessed taxes, 10 May 1824.

Described as a ‘fat bon vivant, an accumulation of many years’ turtle and venison’, Howard died in June 1824. He left Thornbury Castle to his only son Henry Howard*, and other real estate and the residue of personal estate sworn under £90,000 was divided between all his children. Countess Granville Letters, i. 138; PROB 11/1689/469-70; IR26/1004/889.