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HOWARD, JOHN (1726-1790)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 833 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOWARD, See also:JOHN (1726-1790) , See also:English philanthropist and See also:prison reformer, was See also:born at See also:Hackney, probably on the 2nd of See also:September 1726. His childhood was passed at Cardington, near See also:Bedford, where his See also:father, a retired See also:merchant of See also:independent means, had a small See also:estate. He was apprenticed to a See also:firm of grocers in the See also:city of See also:London, but on the See also:death of his father in 17.42, by which he inherited considerable See also:property, he bought up his See also:indenture, and devoted more than a See also:year to See also:foreign travel. Never constitutionally strong, he became, on his return to See also:England, a confirmed invalid. Having been nursed through an acute illness by an attentive landlady, a widow of some fifty-three years of See also:age, Howard, in return for her kindness, offered her See also:marriage and they were See also:united in 1752. Becoming a widower in less than three years, he determined to go abroad again, See also:Portugal being his destination. The See also:ship, however, in which he sailed was taken by a See also:French See also:privateer, the See also:crew and passengers being carried to See also:Brest, where they were treated with See also:great severity. Howard was permitted to return to England on See also:parole to negotiate an See also:exchange, which he accomplished, as well as successfully representing the See also:case of his See also:fellow-captives. He now settled down on his Cardington property, interesting himself in meteorological observations. He was admitted a member of the Royal Society in 1756. In 1758 he married Henrietta, daughter of See also:Edward See also:Leeds, of Croxton, See also:Cambridge-See also:shire. He continued to See also:lead a secluded See also:life at Cardington and at Watcombe, See also:Hampshire, busying himself in the construction of See also:model cottages and the erection of See also:schools.

In 1765 his second wife died after giving See also:

birth to a son. In the following year Howard went for a prolonged foreign tour, from which he returned in 1770. In 1773 the characteristic See also:work of his life may be said to have begun by his See also:acceptance of the See also:office of high See also:sheriff of Bedford. When the assizes were held he did not content himself with sitting out the trials in open See also:court, his inquisitiveness and his benevolence alike impelled him to visit the See also:gaol. Howard found it, like all the prisons of the See also:time, wretchedly defective in its arrangements; but what chiefly shocked him was the circumstance that neither the gaoler nor his subordinates were salaried See also:officers, but were dependent for their livelihood on fees from the prisoners. He found that some whom the juries had declared not guilty, others in whom the See also:grand See also:jury had not found even such See also:appearance of See also:guilt as would See also:warrant a trial, others whose prosecutors had failed to appear, were frequently detained in prison for months after they had ceased to be in the position of accused parties, until they should have paid the fees of gaol delivery (see Introduction to The See also:State of the Prisons of England and See also:Wales). His prompt application to the justices of -the See also:county for a See also:salary to the gaoler in lieu of his fees was met by a demand for a precedent in charging the county with an expense. This he undertook to find if such a thing existed. He went accordingly from county to county, and though he could find no precedent for charging the county with the See also:wages of its servants he did find so many abuses in prison management that he determined to devote himself to their reform. In 1774 he gave See also:evidence before a See also:committee of the See also:House of See also:Commons, and received the thanks of the house for " the humanity and zeal which have led him to visit the several gaols of this See also:kingdom, and to communicate to the House the interesting observations which he has made on that subject." Almost immediately an See also:act was passed which provided for the liberation, See also:free of all charges, of every prisoner against whom the grand jury failed to find a true See also:bill, giving the gaoler a sum from the county See also:rate in lieu of the abolished fees. Tnis was followed in See also:June by another requiring justices of the See also:peace to see that the walls and ceilings of all prisons within their See also:jurisdiction were scraped and whitewashed once a year at least; that the rooms were regularly cleaned and ventilated; that infirmaries were provided for the sick, and proper care taken to get them medical See also:advice; that the naked should be clothed; that underground dungeons should be used as little as could be; and generally that such courses should be taken as would tend to restore and preserve the See also:health of the prisoners. It was highly characteristic of the See also:man that, having caused the provisions of the new legislation to be printed at his own private cost in large type, he sent a copy to every gaoler and warder in the kingdom, that no one should be able to plead See also:ignorance of the See also:law if detected in the violation of its provisions.

He then set out upon a new tour of inspection, from which, however, he was brought See also:

home by the approach of a See also:general See also:election in September 1774. See also:Standing as one of the See also:anti-ministerial candidates for Bedford, he was returned by a narrow See also:majority but was unseated after a See also:scrutiny. After a tour in See also:Scotland and See also:Ireland, he set out in See also:April 1775 upon an extended tour through See also:France, the See also:Low Countries and See also:Germany. At See also:Paris he was at first denied See also:access to the prisons; but, by recourse to an old and almost obsolete law of 1717, according to which any See also:person wishing to distribute See also:alms to the prisoners was to be admitted, he succeeded in inspecting the Bicetre, the Force l'Eveque and most of the other places of confinement, the only important exception being the See also:Bastille. Even in that case he succeeded in obtaining See also:possession of a suppressed pamphlet, which he afterwards translated and published in English, to the unconcealed chagrin of the French authorities. At See also:Ghent he examined with See also:special See also:interest the great Maison de Force, then recently erected, with its distinctive features—useful labour, in the profits of which the prisoners had a See also:share, and See also:complete separation of the inmates by See also:night. At See also:Amsterdam, as in See also:Holland generally, he was much struck with the See also:comparative See also:absence of See also:crime, a phenomenon which he attributed to the See also:industrial and reformatory treatment there adopted. In Germany he found little that was useful and much that was repulsive; in See also:Hanover and See also:Osnabruck, under the See also:rule of a See also:British See also:sovereign, he even found traces of See also:torture. After a See also:short tour in England (Nov. 1775 to May 1776), he again went abroad, extending his tour to several of the Swiss cantons. In 1777 appeared The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations, and an See also:Account of some Foreign Prisons. One of the immediate results was the drafting a bill for the See also:establishment of See also:penitentiary houses, where by means of solitary imprisonment, accompanied by well-regulated labour and religious instruction, the See also:object of reforming the criminal and inuring him to habits of See also:industry might be pursued.

New buildings were manifestly necessary; and Howard volunteered to go abroad again and collect plans. He first went to Amsterdam (April 1778), and carefully examined the " spin-houses " and " rasp-houses 71 for which that city was famous; next he traversed See also:

Prussia, See also:Saxony, Bohemia, See also:Austria and See also:Italy, everywhere inspecting prisons, hospitals and workhouses, and carefully recording the merits and defects of each. The See also:information he thus obtained having been placed at the service of See also:parliament, a bill was passed for See also:building two penitentiary houses, and Howard was appointed first supervisor, but he resigned the See also:post before anything See also:practical had been achieved. In 178o he had published a See also:quarto See also:volume as an appendix (the first) to his State of Prisons ; about the same time also he caused to be printed his See also:translation of the suppressed French 1 The spinhouses were for See also:women prisoners, who were set to See also:spinning or other useful work; in the rasp-houses, the prisoners were employed in rasping See also:wood. The five remaining years of his life were chiefly devoted to researches on the. means for prevention of the See also:plague, and for guarding against the See also:propagation of contagious distempers in general. After an extended tour on the See also:continent his researches seemed to be complete; and with a great See also:accumulation of papers and memoranda, he was preparing to return homewards from See also:Constantinople by See also:Vienna, when it occurred to his scrupulous mind that he still lacked any See also:personal experience of See also:quarantine discipline. He returned to See also:Smyrna, and, deliberately choosing a foul ship, took a passage to See also:Venice. A protracted voyage of sixty days, during which an attack by pirates gave Howard an opportunity of manifesting his personal bravery, was followed by a weary See also:term of confinement which enabled him to gain the experience he had desired. While imprisoned in the Venetian See also:lazaretto he received the information that his only son, a youth of twenty-two years of age, had lost his See also:reason and had been put under See also:restraint. Returning hastily by See also:Trieste and Vienna (where he had a See also:long and singular interview with the See also:emperor See also:Joseph II.), he reached England in See also:February 1787. His first care related to his domestic concerns; he then set out upon another See also:journey of inspection of the prisons of the United Kingdom, at the same time busying himself in preparing for the See also:press the results of his See also:recent tour. The somewhat rambling work containing them was published in 1798 at See also:Warrington, under the See also:title An Account of the See also:Principal Lazarettos in See also:Europe.: with various Papers. relative to the Plague, together with further Observations on some Foreign Prisons and Hospitals, and additional Remarks on the See also:present Stale of those in Great See also:Britain and Ireland.

In See also:

July 1789 he embarked on what proved to be his last journey. Travelling overland to St See also:Petersburg and See also:Moscow, and so southwards, and visiting the principal military hospitals that See also:lay on his route, he reached See also:Kherson in See also:November. In the hospitals of this See also:place and of the immediate neighbourhood he found more than enough to occupy his See also:attention while he awaited the means of transit to Constantinople. Towards the end of, the year his medical advice was asked in the case of a See also:young See also:lady who, was suffering under the See also:camp See also:fever then prevalent, and in attending her he himself took the disease, which terminated fatally on the 20th of See also:January 1790. He was buried near the See also:village of Dauphigny on the road to St See also:Nicholas. There is a statue by See also:Bacon to his memory in St See also:Paul's, London, and one at Bedford by A. See also:Gilbert. In personal appearance Howard is described as having been short, thin and sallow — unprepossessing apart from the attraction of a penetrating See also:eye and a benevolent smile.

End of Article: HOWARD, JOHN (1726-1790)

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