He was the eldest son of William Howard, 3rd Earl of Wicklow and Eleanor Caulfeild, and was known as William Forward, his father having assumed the surname of his mother, Alice Howard, 1st Countess of Wicklow, née Alice Forward.
[1] William Forward was appointed Colonel of the Wicklow Militia on 25 September 1810 in succession to his uncle, the Hon Hugh Howard.
[2] He became Earl of Wicklow in 1818 on the death of his father, and on 10 November 1821 he was elected as an Irish representative peer, thus enabling him to sit in the House of Lords as a Tory.
Between 1831 and his death he served as the first Lord Lieutenant of Wicklow, and he was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 9 October 1846.
[1][4] He had no male issue, and was succeeded in his title by his nephew, Charles Howard.