Born in London, the son of a Thames lighterman. Sailing to Jamaica, he deserted his ship and, with some companions of a like mind, stole a canoe and set off to the Grand Cayman Islands, and there met with some 200 buccaneers and pirates. Joining with these, they took several vessels, lastly a well-armed Spanish ship. In her they cruised off the coast of Virginia, taking a large New England brigantine, of which Howard was appointed quartermaster. Their next prize was a fine Virginian galley, twenty-four guns, crowded with convicts being transplanted to America. These passengers were only too willing to join the pirates.
Next, they sailed away to Guinea, where they took numerous prizes. Here they were attacked by a big Portuguese ship of thirty-six guns, which they defeated. Having by now got together a well appointed pirate fleet, they sailed round the Cape of Good Hope to Madagascar, the happy home of the South Sea pirates. Their ship, the Alexander, was wrecked and lost on a reef, and Howard, together with the English and Dutch members of the crew, seized the treasure, and drove off the Portuguese and Spanish sailors and also the captain, and got to shore in a boat. They then broke up their ship, and lived for a while by fishing and hunting. On one of these hunting parties, the men ran away and left Howard behind.
Howard was found by the King of Anquala, who took care of him until he was picked up by a ship. Later on, Howard became captain of a fine vessel, the Prosperous, thirty-six guns, which he and some other pirates had seized at Madagascar. In her, Howard went cruising, eventually in company with Captain Bowen, attacking a Moorish fleet off St. John's Island. Howard followed the Moorish ships up a river, and, after a fierce fight, seized the largest and richest prize, a ship containing upward of a million dollars worth of goods. Howard, having now made a considerable fortune, retired from the piratical life and went to India, and there married a native woman and settled down. Howard, who was a morose, sour kind of man, ill-treated his wife, and he was at length murdered by some of her relations.
Taken from The Pirates' Who's Who:Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers by Philip Gosse. Originally published by Burt Franklin of 235 East 44th St., New York 10017 in 1924 and in the public domain.