Robert Howard

The Late Robert Howard, Esq. of Tottenham.
The parish of Tottenham has sustained a great loss in the death of Robert Howard, Esq. of Bruce-grove.
In national politics, indeed, and in mere parochial matters, he never took a prominent or active part.  His influence was not put forth in connection with the questions which divide Liberal and Conservative, and his voice was not heard in the counsels of our parish meetings and Boards.  No one who knew him could suppose that he was wanting in public spirit or had not made up his mind on the questions of the day; but the kingdom which is not of this world absorbed his thoughts, and his chief concern was for the moral and spiritual benefit of his fellow-parishioners.  It is, therefore, by the Church of Christ in all its branches, and by the poor in their troubles and necessities, that the loss of Mr. Howard will be most felt.
In a more loving, cordial, catholic spirit, could no man engage in services of united prayer and communion, than he evinced from year to year, and until laid aside by his last illness.  The unction and fervour of his prayers, and the weight and point of his scriptural expositions on such occasions, and in still more private gatherings for Bible reading, will not soon be forgotten by those who were privileged to meet with him.  In the work of that catholic society, the London City Mission, of which he was the local treasurer, he took a hearty and generous interest; and in him, its agents have lost a kind and sympathizing friend.
Of the wants of his poorer neighbours, he was habitually considerate; and to him in special cases of necessity and misfortune, the deserving never appealed in vain.  Blessed with a prosperous business and abundant means, he was ever ready to distribute, willing to communicate.  And as the gathering of all classes at his funeral and around his grave testified, to him in a large sense, were the words of the Scriptures, which he loved, applicable, "When the ear heard him, then it blessed him; when the eye saw him, it gave witness to him;  because he delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless and him that had none to help him."
After a lengthened illness, borne in a spirit of faith and patience—a gracious weaning time to the hearts that loved him so much—he fell asleep at his country seat at Ashmore, Dorsetshire, on the 2nd of June.
All who knew him, and were capable of at all appreciating his Christian character, most earnestly unite in the desire that his enlarged, and generous, and truly Christian spirit may survive in every member of his esteemed family; and that as God is pleased from time to time to remove from among us such standard-bearers of the truth, others and younger men may be raised up to fight the good fight of faith, and as faithful witnesses to the testimony of Jesus. —Local Paper.
"The Christian" 1871