Major Joseph Howe b. 1729 England d. 4 Mar 1794 "Sunnyside", Pulaski County, Virginia: If the Legends Are True...

"...as to the lineage if not as to the exact relationship."

CHAPTER V

THE HOWES

The name of Howe is frequently linked with that of Hoge in the Southwest Virginia branch and the genealogy of the two is so related as to result in the Southwest Virginia Hoges being really more Howe than Hoge.

Governor Tyler, in writing of the wife of James Hoge, the progenitor of the Southwest Virginia Hoges, refers to her father, Joseph Howe, as first cousin of Lord Howe. That may be correct. There is, also, a tradition, which all writers have discredited, that Joseph Howe was a member of a family which had settled in Massachusetts and which there at an early time spelled its name "how" and which later added the "e," spelling it then as it appears at the time this history begins.

There is another version of the ancestry of Joseph Howe, and it seems to be the correct one – certainly as to the lineage if not as to the exact relationship. It serves to substantiate the connection of Joseph Howe with the Howes of the Anglo-Irish peerage and to declare the degree of kinship even if it does not establish it.

A note in the scrap book of Mary B. Luster, a niece of Eleanor Howe Hoge and a great-granddaughter of Joseph Howe, is one authority for this other version – that Joseph Howe was a brother of Lord Howe. The story from that note is that while quite a youth he ran away from England to join his brother, Lord George Augustus Howe, 3rd Viscount, who at that time was one of the English officers fighting in the French and Indian War. He arrived in America about the time that Lord Howe was killed at the Battle of Ticonderoga, and finding his brother dead, he drifted southward and finally settled at what came to be known as "Sunnyside," in Pulaski County, Virginia.

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The Family of Hoge

Lord Howe, who was killed at Ticonderoga, was a brother of William Howe, who succeeded to the title, and who at one time commanded the British armies in the War of the American Revolution, and of Admiral Richard Howe, 4th Viscount-Earl, who in the same war commanded the British naval forces. Concerning them, the following is from the Encyclopedia Brittannica:

"Howe, George Augustus, 3rd Viscount. Killed at the battle of Ticonderoga, 1758."

"Howe, Richard (1726-1779) 4th Viscount, Earl, British Admiral, son of Emmanuel Scroope Howe and Mary Sophia Charlotte, a daughter of the Baroness Kilmansegge, afterward Countess of Darlington, a mistress of George I. By death of his elder brother, George Augustus, he became 4th Viscount Howe – an Irish Peerage."

"How, Sir William, 5th Viscount, was the younger brother to George Augustus and Richard."

"The friendliness of the brothers, Admiral Richard Howe and General William Howe, to the colonies led to their selection for the command of the British forces in the Revolutionary War. It was thought that they could negotiate a settlement with the American forces."

A manuscript by S. S. Howe, East Radford, Va., dated December 10 1906, accords with Mrs. Luster's version. This manuscript definitely designates Joseph Howe as a brother of George Lord Viscount Howe, Admiral Richard Howe and General William Howe and recites, as tradition, Joseph Howe's having left home to join his brother. As substantiating the time of his emigration it quotes the following from a Westminster Abbey guide: "Monument northwest of Belfry Tower bears inscription: George Lord Viscount Howe, died 1758. He was brother of the great admiral. He was killed on the first disastrous expedition to Ticonderoga in North America. Wolfe called him the noblest Englishman of his time and the best soldier in the British army. The monument was put up by the Province of Massachusetts before its separation from the mother country."

The Family of Hoge

The manuscript states that Joseph Howe had made one trip to this country before the one which resulted in his settlement here. That trip was in the year 1737. On his second trip over he is said to have met Ellen Dunbar, a Scotch lady, whom he married. This incident agrees with the account by Governor Tyler, but differs slightly from the account by Mary B. Luster, who writes that "he returned to England and married a Scotch lady, Ellen Dunbar." But, with that, the two accounts agree on his having crossed the Atlantic on two trips.

Whether brother or first cousin to George, Richard and William Howe, all accounts agree that Joseph moved southward from Boston and settled in Virginia on Back Creek in what was then Augusta County, later Montgomery and now Pulaski. The date of this settlement was 1758, the year of the death of George Lord Viscount Howe.

He secured a grant of land for services rendered the Crown and on it built his residence which he called "Sunnyside" and where he spent the remainder of his life. He purchased from John Daye, who afterwards became his son-in-law, and additional tract of land adjoining his grant. The part consisting of the grant was in late years in the possession of Mrs. Agnes Howe De Jarnette, his great-granddaughter, and the part purchased was in the possession of J. Hoge Tyler, his great-great-grandson.

Joseph Howe constructed a line of forts from Duquesne southward for the protection of the Virginia frontier. There was preserved in the family for a long time a curious metal tag which he had taken from the nose of an hostile Indian whom he had killed from one of those forts, the tag being one of those commonly furnished by the the French to distinguish the Indians friendly to the French cause.

Joseph Howe is reputed to have been of robust physique. His English home was one of refinement and wealth from which he was separated by reason of his sympathy for the Colonists – a thing the more intolerable because of the prominence of his relations on the British side.

The Family of Hoge

It is not known that any of the English estate reverted to him although it was considerable and although two of his three brothers (or his cousins) died without issue. All of the property may have gone to an only sister, whom the Encyclopedia Brittannica mentions as a friend of Benjamin Franklin. One of Richard Howe's two daughters, Sophia Charlote, married a Curzon and became ancestress to Lord Curzon, in later years Viceroy of India. Of his wife there is nothing known except that she was of Scotch blood. Thus the Scotch strain in the family of Hoge to be stimulated. S.S. Howe says that she was slightly below medium size, with light hair and blue eyes and walked with a slight limp which required the use of a cane and which in years after gave rise to a curious tradition of the stroke of the cane against the floor being heard at the old homestead.

The Family of Hoge – 1927

from a letter written by J. Nellie Hoge, regarding Governor James Hoge Tyler, that appeared in the Richmond Dispatch in August, 1879.

"...His grandmother, the wife of General James Hoge, was the daughter of Major Daniel Howe, on whose headstone, in the family burial ground, in Pulaski County, is the unique epitaph:

'In youth a solider of the Revolution,
In old age a solider of the Cross.'

"The Howe homestead is in the possesion of a granddaughter, Mrs. Eugene de Jarnette (nee Agnes Howe).

"In Mrs. Howe's veins flowed some of the proudest English blood, but as her ancestor had thrown away his title to the trappings of heraldry to espouse the cause of liberty so she ever impressed on this boy that

' 'Tis only noble to be good,
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.'

"Hence he is a democart in heart; one of the people; ever ready so sustain that prime American principle: Nobility beongs only to those who win it.

"Bluff City, Virginia, August 21 1879.

J. Nellie Hoge

The Family of Hoge – 1927

"The maternal grandmother of James Hoge Tyler was Eleanor Howe, the daughter of Major Howe, of the Revolutionary War, of the same lineage as Lord Howe and General Wayne."

South-west Virginia and the valley – 1892

"She was a daughter of Joseph Howe, brother of Lord Howe of England."

Earl Clarence Frost – 1954

January 8, 2008

Craig,

I found your Scrope ancestry very interesting. There is quite a bit of information about the Scropes in "The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester" by John Nichols. Vol. II., PT. II. Published in 1798.

It is in here because the Scropes of Bolton were also Lords of the Manor of Blaston and also had connections with Bowden Magna where Geoffrey Scrope (d.1380) was Rector.

The information accompanying two Pedigrees matches your information. However, under Emanuel Scrope, Lord Viscount Howe it says he died in Barbados in 1735 "leaving by his lady, Mary-Sophia-Charlotte, daughter of baron Kilmansegg, three sons; George-Augustus, Richard, and William; besides six daughters."

I notice you have a son Joseph.

Langar (Nottinghamshire), where Thomas Lord Scrope (d.1609) and Thomas Lord Scrope (d.1627) are buried is only about ten miles from where I live.

The Pedigree of Lords Scrope of Bolton, Lords of the Manor of Blaston, refers to Martha Jones, alias Sandford, as Emanuel Scrope's "concubine".

It refers to Anabella Scrope, alias Jones, alias Sandford as "filia bastarda".

Best wishes,
Martin Wood

January 9, 2008

Craig,

Oh the contradictions of genealogical sources!

I was in the local library this morning and looked at Thorotons "Antiquities of Nottinghamshire" and he records that Scrope Howe (d. Barbados 1735) and his wife Sophia Charlotte Kilmansegg had six sons and four daughters.

I found it interesting to read Thoroton because he was obviously a contemporary of Richard Howe. Referring to the sons of Scrope Howe and Sophia Charlotte he says:

"...one of which was George Augustus, the late Viscount, who was killed at the attack on Triconderago, July 5 1758; Richard, the present Viscount; and Sir William Howe, who commanded against the Americans in the late war, and to whom the honours of the family are likely to descend, the present Lord Howe having no male issue."

Thoroton goes on to say:

"The Right Honourable Richard Howe, Viscount Howe, Baron of Colonawley, also Viscount Howe of Langar, by birth, was lately created Earl Howe, by his present Majesty, and Vice-Admiral of England at the death of the brave Lord Rodney in 1792. He married Mary, daughter of Chiverton Hartopp Esq. of Leicestershire, by whom he had issue......."

Of course you already know this!

Best wishes,
Martin

Martin Wood – 2008

FamilySearch shows two wives named Agnes that married James Hoge son of William & Barbara; evidently two genealogies for the same person.

The first one, "Agnes Crawford (AFN: 4VFL-SV)" shows a son James married Elizabeth Howe, daughter of Joseph Howe, son of James Howe (AFN:CVHB-GH), son of General Emanuel Scrope Howe (AFN: 9G8N-N9) & Ruperta (AFN: BEQJ-CW). In other words, it has the grandfather of Joseph Howe as General Emanuel Scroope Howe rather than his brother Scrope Howe, 1º Viscount Howe. And his father as James rather than Emanuel Scrope Howe, 2º Viscount Howe.

This would make Joseph Howe 1st cousin to Lord Howe and 2nd cousin to his sons George Augustus, Richard, & William, rather than son of Lord Howe and brother to his sons.

This Agnes shows sons Daniel (b. 1744), John (b. 1730) and James (b. 12 Jan 1742), the latter marrying Elizabeth Howe.

The other Agnes,"'Agnes (BVJK-04)", shows a birth of Abt 1720, and her first child when she was about the age of 10 as John Hoge (b. 1730). The children of this Agnes conform to The Family of Hoge being Mary, John, and James (b. 1731). It shows Mary married to Robert Evans and their children, but no wives or children for John or James.

J. Craig Canada – 2008