Rev. Hinds Howell

Rev. Hinds Howell, Rector of Bridestowe in Devon and then of Drayton in Norfolk, son of Elizabeth Thornhill Howell (q.v.) and Conrad Howell, and son-in-law of Mary Jane Goodridge (q.v.).

1. In 1841 and 1851 Hinds Howell was living at Bridestowe, in 1851 as Rector (aged 42) with his mother and mother-in-law, wife Mary A. Goodridge (all born Barbados) and seven children aged 5-18, all born Devon; in 1861, 1871 and 1881 he was living in Drayton Norfolk. Born Barbados. He left £24,339 12s on his death in 1899.

2. Hinds Howell, 7th son of Conrad Howell of Barbados, matriculated Merton Oxford 06/11/1828 aged 19, BA 1834, various curacies 1833-1855, Hon. Canon Norwich 1856, rector of Drayton from 1855. Died St Faith's Norfolk aged 90 1899.

3. Fullsome obituaries of Hinds Howell appeared in a number of East Anglian newspapers. Here is the tribute from the Norwich Mercury:

   Canon Hinds Howell filled so large a space in the history and mental progress of Norfolk and Norwich in the latter half of the nineteenth century, that a record of the man and his work more permanent than a newspaper column affords was most desirable. He was in every way a man worthy to be remembered. His daughter, Miss Agnes Rous Howell, who has had the literary training necessary for one undertaking to write a memoir, added to an unsurpassed knowledge of her subject, has, in a book of some 140 pages, given us just what was wanted. A yet more permanent and public keeping in mind of the stranger who became Norfolk man be put up at the Diocesan Training College, whose interests he was never weary furthering. His daughter’s book is entitled Hinds Howell: A Memoir, and published by Agas H. Goose, Norwich: by Parker and Co., London. Though all, save the last chapter, which tells of the Canon’s last days, was written while Hinds Howell was yet alive, there is as fair estimate of the man, and self constraint on the part of the daughter, that are most commendable. As the late Dean Goulburn, who predeceased Hinds Howell, also set down his estimate of his friend, to serve as a preface, we may come to the conclusion that the memoir was a good while in doing, ere happily there was any call to give it to the world. The Dean put on record a clever estimate of one side of Hinds Howell’s character, it was summarised by the late Archdeacon Groome. The Dean says:- At all gatherings for consultation and united action he was thoroughly in his element, and felt that be was so. While his own views, both political and theological, were rigidly fixed, and never varied, he yet delighted in debate and the conflict of opinions. On the writer's remarking to the late Archdeacon Groome how much pleasure was found by many men in meetings, and the lively discussions which arise at them, even when those discussions are mostly academical, and lead to little practical result, the Archdeacon—as shrewd an observer of human life and character as one often meets with—replied—"Oh, yes, the excitement of controversy attracts them, even when little or nothing comes of it. As for Hinds Howell, is to him what ‘the great and wide sea’ is to Leviathan— ‘whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein.’"

   But the Dean himself takes a fuller and wider view of the man when he says: "It was Instinct with him to work, and work hard, 'doing with his might whatsoever his hand found do’ in every position which he occupied. And his power of method was no less than his power of will. As an organiser of any enterprise for the public good, he was truly great." That tells in brief the whole story of the man and his doings. Whether in his native island, Barbadoes, Oxford University, in Devonshire as a curate, or in charge of Bishop Phlllpott’s rectory, close to Exeter, or rector of a Dartmoor parish, Hinds Howell’s life was one of earnest striving for the public good, or at all events what he deemed to be such. This part of his life-story, told in the memoir, cannot fall to please Norfolk readers, since the setting is so very different from that to which they are accustomed. The beginning of his career as an educationist is well told by his daughter. He had married while yet an undergraduate, and his domesticities hindering his remaining at Oxford to try for honours, he rushed off to Budleigh Salterton. When his wife and little daughter were getting over a dangerous illness, he sent to the rector of the parish, and offered himself for any work that he liked to give, pending his ordination. Soon after, one of the "good old hunting squires of Devonshire called on him, and said, Do you want a curacy, Mr. Hinds Howell, because a curate Is wanted in my parish, and I have heard of you.” This led to the young man's speedy ordination and the beginning of his clerical career at Washfield, near Tiverton. The memoir proceeds to narrate what followed:

   Within week of his arrival he sought an interview with the squire and quietly asked what was to be done about a school. The squire answered, “Nothing.” “Will you give me some land to build one?” pursued the curate. “Certainly not,” was the encouraging answer. Then and there my father determined that a school of some sort there must and should be, and, assisted by his wife, actually held one four days a week in his dining room. At the end of six months the squire galloped up to the house and gave a view halloo. “Still mad about this school?” he asked abruptly as the curate came to the door. “Still resolved have one,” he answered laughing. “Well, I must say,” went on the squire “that the children have improved manners, so if you can come with me now I’ll show you a bit of land you may have.” Having obtained the land my father asked for building materials, and was told that he might draw stone from a quarry belonging to the squire. Washfield School cost about £400, of which £100 was contributed by the rector, my father and mother finding the rest.

   The young curate was thought to be so strict in his ideas of what was fitting in church and church government that came to known as “Rubrical Howell.” There was much room for improvement, though, in truth, not few of those western folk were strongly opposed to some things which Hinds Howell upheld. He had been seven years rector of Bridestowe, when his step-brother, Bishop Hinds, on Hinds Howell’s recovering from a dangerous illness, urged him to come to the drier air of Norfolk, and offered him the living of Drayton. This was accepted in June, 1855, and thus began the connection in Norfolk that extended just over 44 years. The Bishop was fully warranted in appointing him to an honorary canonry in the Cathedral within eight months, and just before he himself resigned his see, for Hinds Howell had been long before been elected by his Devonshire brother clergymen, rural dean, while he was yet only curate, though he was the Bishop’s own curate, and by the clergy of Taverham Deanery petitioning the Bishop to give him that office in Norfolk. The great and varied work thus early in his Norfolk career, began so auspiciously, is fully recorded in the memoir and most of it is well known to all Norfolk men. One of the most instructive chapters in the memoir is that which tells of Hinds Howell’s long administration of the poor law, and of the vigour with which he set forth his views on the needs of the poor, and the duty of the public towards them. This is well supplemented by a memorandum from Mr. James Stuart, M.P., telling of the Canon’s breezy visit to the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor “one of the finest things I ever saw,” says Mr. Stuart. What Hinds Howell did in Convocation is less known to the public, but 600 clergy expressed their sense of that work in an address presented to him on his 87th birthday, in December, 1896. Miss Agnes Howell admirably and, on the whole, most justly sums up her father’s character in a brief last chapter, and thus ends what will be generally admitted to be a model biography. There Is an excellent portrait of the Canon, taken when he was yet in full vigour, a view of Drayton Rectory house, and one of the exterior of Drayton Parish Church. The book is also excellently produced."

T71/897 Barbados claim no. 2660; T71/899 Barbados claim no. 4799 (Trent's).

Given as Rev. Hinds Howell in one small award in Barbados but simply as Hinds Howell for the Trent estate, T71/897 Barbados no. 2660; T71/899 Barbados No. 4799. In both awards the attorney in Barbados was John Gay Goding.

1. 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses online.

2. Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 [database online]; no apparent entry in CCEd  [database online]; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]. National Probate Calendar 1899.

3. Norwich Mercury 14/10/1899.

We are grateful to Peter Selley for his assistance with compiling this entry.