He was the first son of Lord Thomas Howard and Mary Elizabeth Savile.

[1][2] At the time of the Jacobite Rising of 1715, he used his influence to secure the acquittal of his brother Edward on the charge of high treason.

[3] The Duke himself was arrested on 29 October 1722 under suspicion of involvement in a Jacobite plot, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

His wife, refused permission to visit, prevailed upon his kinsman, the Earl of Carlisle, to act as surety for his bail in May 1723.

[3] His marriage is said to have been unhappy, and his wife, a staunch believer in Catholicism and Jacobitism, separated from him when he—in her words—"truckled to the Usurper".