Bookends

Martin Howard

Martin Howard (1725–1781) was a politician in colonial Rhode Island. An eminent lawyer, politician, phisiocrat and sceptical philosopher, and had been a delegate from Rhode Island to the Albany Congress. He was the only prominent American to publicly support the Stamp Act of 1765, in his pamphlet "A Letter from a Gentleman at Halifax to His Friend in Rhode Island," (1765) in which he asserted that Parliament had the power to impose taxes on the colonies. Fleeing Rhode Island, he was appointed Chief Justice of North Carolina (1767–1775). A Loyalist, he returned to England when the Revolution broke out. Howard was born probably in 1725 and grew up in Rhode Island where his family had moved in 1726. Although raised a Baptist, he became active in the Anglican Chu… more »