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Stanley Howard (1850–1883)

by K. J. Cable

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Stanley Howard (1850-1883), by Freeman Studio

Stanley Howard (1850-1883), by Freeman Studio

State Library of New South Wales, ON 6/25x30/Box 24

Stanley Howard (1850-1883), Church of England clergyman, was born on 11 February 1850 at Wadsley, Yorkshire, England, the fourth son of Rev. Thomas Henry Howard, perpetual curate of Wadsley, and his wife Maria, née Wilson, whose family had built the church and held its patronage. His father was related to the ducal family of Norfolk but had been a Quaker businessman before conforming to the Church of England. Howard was educated at Milton Abbas School, Dorset, and in 1869 became a pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge, but his health failed before he could take his degree. Early in 1872 he moved temporarily to New South Wales, hoping his health would improve, but within a yearBishop Frederic Barker had persuaded him to seek ordination in Sydney.

Howard studied for the ministry at Moore College, Liverpool, under Canon Robert King. On 8 June 1873 he was made deacon; he was ordained priest by Barker on 23 May 1875. He served curacies at St Peter's, Cook's River, and at the important parish of St John's, Darlinghurst. He also acted as domestic chaplain to the bishop who continued to take a personal interest in him. In 1876 with Barker he toured North Queensland to renew the campaign to secure a bishop for that region. In 1878 he returned to England where at St Peter's, Clifton, Bristol, he married Mary Anna Nash. He also re-entered St John's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1879; M.A., 1883).

Howard returned to Sydney in November 1878 and was appointed to the new parish of Bowral-Nattai in the southern tablelands of New South Wales. In 1880 he built a parsonage at Bowral on the model of the vicarage erected by his father at his Somerset parish of Warmley, planned other church buildings and promoted a school of arts. When Howard was inducted at Bowral he was described as 'a young gentleman of delicate health but possessed of indomitable perseverance; well educated, possessing a grand substitute for affectation—good common sense, an able preacher, and withal a gentleman'. In his brief colonial career he tactfully served as intermediary between an ageing bishop and his changing diocese, and did much to link the predominant school of churchmanship in the diocese of Sydney to comparable developments in the Church in England. He died at Bowral on 19 September 1883 where he was buried. He was survived by his wife (d.1943), two daughters and a son, Rev. Charles Stanley Allan Howard (b.1879), who served at Opa in the New Hebrides.

Select Bibliography

  • W. M. Cowper (ed), Episcopate of the Right Reverend Frederic Barker, D.D. (Lond, 1888)
  • Australian Churchman (Sydney), 23 Jan 1879
  • Guardian (Sydney), 26 Sept 1883
  • M. A. Howard, Tales of a Grandmother, S. Howard ed (State Library of New South Wales)
  • S. Howard diaries and family papers (privately held).

Citation details

K. J. Cable, 'Howard, Stanley (1850–1883)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/howard-stanley-3806/text6033, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 28 March 2024.

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, (Melbourne University Press), 1972

View the front pages for Volume 4

© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024

Stanley Howard (1850-1883), by Freeman Studio

Stanley Howard (1850-1883), by Freeman Studio

State Library of New South Wales, ON 6/25x30/Box 24

Life Summary [details]

Birth

11 February, 1850
Wadsley, Yorkshire, England

Death

19 September, 1883 (aged 33)
Bowral, New South Wales, Australia

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Religious Influence

Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included.

Occupation