The paper was carried on at the risk of Howe, who, though he had been fully emancipated in 1806,[1] did not receive a salary as government printer until 1811 when he was granted only £60 a year.
His amiable disposition saw him given the nickname “George Happy.”[5] Howe's eldest son, Robert (1795–1829), helped his father from age 9, but as a teenager rebelled, indulging in excessive alcohol consumption and fathering an illegitimate child before converting to Methodism under the guidance of Ralph Mansfield and returning to the family business in 1820.
[1] The first volume of verse published by a native-born Australian Wild Notes from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel by Charles Tompson junior, which appeared in 1826, is an excellent example of R. Howe's typographical work.
[8] Moreover, his editorial policies, stemming from his religious convictions and the newspaper's continuing support for the government, led to him being horsewhipped by William Redfern.
[1] Starting 1 January 1821, the Gazette was jointly edited by Mansfield, a division of duties that Howe hoped would facilitate his retirement from the newspaper.
Less than a month later, on 29 January 1829, Howe drowned in a boating accident off Fort Denison, leaving his wife, Ann, as proprietor of the Gazette and Mansfield as the editor.
George Terry Howe (c. 1806–63), Robert's younger half-brother by his father's common law wife, Elizabeth Easton, went to Launceston, Tasmania in October 1821, becoming the town's first printer and the founding editor of the Tasmanian and Port Dalrymple Advertiser.