# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howe, Emanuel Scrope

​HOWE, EMANUEL SCROPE (d. 1709), diplomatist, the fourth son of John Grubham Howe of Langar, Nottinghamshire, and brother of Scrope, first viscount Howe [q. v.], entered the army at an early age. From November 1695 till his death he was colonel of a regiment of foot. He was gazetted brigadier-general in April 1704, major-general March 1707, and lieutenant-general May 1709. Being a staunch whig, he held the office of groom of the bedchamber thoughout William III's reign. He also became lieutenant and ranger of the forests of Alice Holt and Wolmer in Hampshire, a post enjoyed by his widow after his death. Gilbert White recounts that Howe turned out into these forests some German wild boars and sows, and ‘a bull or buffalo; but the country rose upon them and destroyed them’ (Nat. Hist. and Antiq. of Selborne, 1880, p. 25). He was M.P. for Morpeth from December 1701 to April 1705, and for Wigan from May 1705 to April 1708. There is no record of his having taken any part in the debates, but he appears to have been a useful, if somewhat self-seeking, supporter of the Godolphin administration (Marlborough Despatches, ii. 159-60). He was first commissioner of prizes from September 1703 until July 1705, when he was appointed envoy extraordinary to the elector of Hanover. In this capacity he succeeded in keeping the elector steadfast to the grand alliance, in spite of the strained relations between the reigning families of England and Hanover, and the intrigues of the English tories. His task was rendered more difficult by the injudicious correspondence of his wife with the Duchess of Marlborough. He was a severe sufferer from gout, but, when his health allowed him, accompanied the elector on his campaigns. He returned to England on leave in June 1709, and died there 26 Sept. following.
He married Ruperta, natural daughter of Rupert, prince palatine of the Rhine, by Mrs. Margaret Hughes [q. v.], by whom he had four sons and two daughters. His daughter Sophia was maid of honour to Queen Caroline while princess of Wales, and her intrigue with Anthony Lowther and subsequent death are frequently referred to in the society scandal of the period (see Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. i. p. 571). She was the heroine of Lord Hervey's ‘Epistle of Monimia and Philocles’ (Letters to and from Henrietta Countess of Suffolk, 1824, i. 35-6n.) Howe's widow survived him many years, leaving behind her ‘many curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing’ (White, Nat. Hist. and Antiq. of Selborne, 1880, p. 23). There is a portrait of Howe by Sir Peter Lely, an engraving of which by C. Sherwin is prefixed to Sir George Bromley's ‘Collection of Original Royal Letters,’ 1787, opp.p. xxix. A collection of his letters from Hanover (1705-6) to George Stepney, the diplomatist, is preserved in the Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. (7075 ff. 3, 71-111, 21551 f. 52). Four letters (1707-8) from him to the Earl of Manchester are among the Duke of Manchester's MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. ii. pp. 93, 97, 98, 101); one of these is printed in Cole's ‘Memoirs of Affairs of State,’ 1733, p. 526.
[Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, 1857, v. 336, 564, 569-70, 586, vi. 170, 445, 493; Marlborough Despatches, 1845, i. 472, ii. 328-9, iii. 309-10, 370, iv. 26, 523; Coxe's Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough, 1818, ii. 293-8, 595-6; Private Correspondence of the Duchess of Marlborough, 1838, i. 189, 257, ii. 381, 386; Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany, 2nd ser. 1862, iii. 163; Sandford's Genealogical Hist. of the Kings and Queens of England, 1707, p. 571; Chamberlayne's Angliæ Notitia, 1692, 1694, 1702, 1704, 1707, 1708; Annals of Queen Anne, 1710, viii. 385; Cal.Treasury Papers, 1708-1714 cxvii. 20, 1720-8 ccxxix. 18; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, 1789, v. 82-3; Collins's Peerage of England, 1812, viii. 139-40; Noble's Biog. Hist. 1806,ii. 217-19; Official Lists of Members of Parliament, i. 596, 603, ii. 3; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii.6,x. 473-4.]
G. F. R. B.