Richard Howell

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American politician (1754–1802)

title: "Richard Howell" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1754-births", "1802-deaths", "governors-of-new-jersey", "lawyers-from-mercer-county,-new-jersey", "people-from-newark,-delaware", "politicians-from-trenton,-new-jersey", "american-people-of-welsh-descent", "new-jersey-federalists", "federalist-party-state-governors-of-the-united-states", "people-from-colonial-new-jersey", "18th-century-american-lawyers", "19th-century-american-lawyers", "19th-century-american-episcopalians", "18th-century-american-politicians", "19th-century-american-legislators"] description: "American politician (1754–1802)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Howell" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician (1754–1802) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Richard Howell
image	File:Governor Richard Howell.jpg
order	3rd
office	Governor of New Jersey
term_start	June 3, 1793
term_end	October 31, 1801
predecessor	Thomas Henderson
(acting)
successor	Joseph Bloomfield
spouse	Keziah Burr Howell
birth_date
birth_place	Newark, Colony of Delaware, British America
death_date
death_place	Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
::

Early life and military career

Howell was born in Newark, in the Colony of Delaware, and was a descendant of a Virginian old colonist family. He was a lawyer and soldier of the early United States Army. He served as captain and later major of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment from 1775 to 1779. Richard was a twin, his twin brother was Lewis Howell. Lewis was a physician for the 2nd New Jersey Regiment and died during the Revolutionary War.

Politics

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Richard_Howell.jpg" caption="Letter from Major Richard Howell to [[Israel Shreve]], 1778"] ::

At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Howell was admitted as an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati in the state of New Jersey.

Richard was offered the role of judge advocate of the army, but turned down the appointment to practice law. He was clerk of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1778 to June 3, 1793. He succeeded Thomas Henderson as Governor and served until 1801. Replaced as Governor by Joseph Bloomfield, Howell died the following year. He was the grandfather of Varina Howell, the second wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Death

Howell died in Trenton, New Jersey, on April 28, 1802, and was buried in that city's Friends Burying Ground. Howell Township in Monmouth County is named in his honor.

References

"Richard Howell | The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey".
Metcalf, Bryce (1938). ''Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the [[Society of the Cincinnati]], 1783-1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies'' Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., p. 169.
"Officers Represented in the Society of the Cincinnati".
Todd, Charles Burr. (1902). "A general history of the Burr family". New York, Printed for the author by the Knickerbocker press.
link. (September 30, 2007 , [[National Governors Association]]. Accessed August 20, 2007.)
Hutchinson, Viola L. [http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=16 ''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''], New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed September 2, 2015.
[[Henry Gannett

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