[2] Henry was the eldest son of Philip Howard (1730–1810) of Corby Castle, who wrote Scriptural History of the Earth and of Mankind, first published in London in 1797.

Howard was educated at the college of the English Benedictines at Douay, and for a short time in 1774 studied at the University of Paris.

[4] On 17 December 1774, Howard entered the Theresian Academy in Vienna, and there became a friend of Montecuccoli and Marsigli.

At Strasburg the governor, M. de la Salle, and General Wurmser showed him favour, and during the two or three years that he passed in study there, living with his father and mother, he often visited Cardinal Rohan.

In 1784 a final attempt on the part of the Earl of Surrey to get him admitted into the German detachment of the Duke of York's forces failed; and the following year he returned to Great Corby.

In politics he was a Whig; he signed the petition in favour of parliamentary reform, and advocated the repeal of the Penal Laws against Catholics.

She died in 1789, leaving one daughter; the monument by Nollekens erected to her memory in Wetheral Church, Cumberland, is the subject of two of William Wordsworth's sonnets.

Together, they were the parents of two sons and three daughters, including:[4] Howard died at Corby Castle on 1 March 1842.