Howard, John

John (1726-1790), an English prison reformer. He was born near London and inherited considerable property from his father. In 1736, the year of the great earthquake at Lisbon, he set out to visit that city. His vessel was taken by a French privateer. Ere his release he underwent hardships in French prisons. In 1773 he was made sheriff, that is to say, a judge of his native county and devoted himself to the reform of prisons. He visited the chief prisons of Great Britain, Ireland, and the continent, and published an account of what he had seen. He died in the southern part of Russia from the effect of a fever caught from a patient. He was not a man of great ability, but he is remembered in England for his services in the cause of humanity.