Thomas Howard

Quaker. Renounced succession to title of Duke of Norfolk (family tradition).

King and Queen Ironworks, Rotherhithe.

Lived in Stockwell

In c1812 this ancestor was asked by the 11 Duke of Norfolk, Charles, to become the 12th Duke, this is well documented, he refused due to his Quaker ideals. Met Kings George III and IV. Big noise in the city in iron manufacture.

Thomas Howard, the eldest son of Robert and Elizabeth Howard of Folkestone, was a remarkably fine man and continued so even to his old age. He and his brother Robert began business together in London about the year 1760, but they did not continue long in the same trade, Thomas Howard pursuing the braziery business in a shop in Thames Street -– his brother Robert remaining in the tin trade in what was called Smithfield Bars, the north entrance of that place now part of St. John’s Street, here their sister Sarah kept their house. Thomas Howard married Mary Leatham of Pontefract in 1762 and afterwards removed to Queen Street, Cheapside – where they had a large family several of whom died in infancy. Thomas Howard the elder lived many years in St. Paul’s Churchyard to which he removed from Queen Street, but not liking the retail business, and his wife’s health requiring a change to the country – they left London entirely in 1788 and retired to a comfortable house which Thomas Howard had built in the village of Stockwell, then much more rural than of late years. The Iron Works at Rotherhithe in which Thomas Howard was a partner were managed on behalf of the Company by him for a long period for which he had a handsome salary; his son William was employed under him, and succeeded his father as principal. Thomas Howard died at Stockwell in 1824 aged 88 years. Mary Howard died in 1820 aged 81; both were buried at Wandsworth in the Friends’ Burial Ground.

Thomas Howard was an inventor. Was this the original hibachi stove?

From: Salisbury and Winchester Journal - Monday 21 August 1780

BY THE KING’S PATENT. THE New-invented SALISBURY PORTABLE KITCHEN, for roasting, boiling, and baking any kind in any room, or the open air, without the assistance of a fire place, and which may be removed from place to place at pleasure. By the peculiar advantages of this invention, a compleat dinner may be expeditiously dressed, with very little expence or trouble; joint may be roasted, and another boiled with vegetables and puddings all at the same time, with less than two pennyworth of charcoal. The meat roasted in this kitchen is esteemed sweeter than when done in the common way, and on fair trial has been found to contain considerably more of its original weight, the gravy and fat being better preserved. When dinner is dressed, the same fire, without addition, will bake a loaf in one part, and pyes, tarts, cakes, rolls, or muffins in the other, at the same time. These Kitchens are sold by the Patentees, William Redman, of Salisbury, and Thomas Howard, St. Paul’s Churchyard, London. Also by their appointment, Arnold Finchett, No. 188, Fleet-street; William Slark, No. 148, Cheapside, corner Foster-lane; Gidion Dare, Cockspur Street; David Fontaine, corner of Middle-row, Holborn, Edward Johns, New Bond Street; and Taylor and Bailey, No. 2, Little Tower-Street. Likewise Jacob Axford, In Bath.

Signed the First Petition to Parliament for the Abolition of Slavery, 1783 (From the London Meeting of the Society of Friends)