Catherine Susan Ann (McNab) Howe (1807 - 1890)

Born 12 May 1807 in St. John's, Newfoundland

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph Howe — married 3 Feb 1828 in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Descendants

Died 5 Jul 1890 at age 83 in Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Judith Chidlow [send private message] and Walter Howe [send private message]

Biography

Catharine Susan Ann McNab was born 12 May 1807 in St. John’s, Newfoundland.^[1] She lived with her parents on McNab’s Island from 1817 until her marriage to Joseph Howe on 3 Feb 1828 in St. Paul’s church, Halifax and from then, raised his son by an unknown partner, Edward Howe, who was born about 1825, equally with her own children. A copy of their marriage bond is in the Nova Scotia Archives. ^[2].

Joseph’s well-known career in newspaper and politics often had him away from home and Susan Ann ran his business as well as the household and family, with the help Joseph had arranged and the guidance of his frequent letters.^[3] Joseph was Premier of Nova Scotia 1860-1863. They went to Ottawa in 1869. A gratuity of two months of Joseph’s salary was granted to her in July 1873. ^[4] She died 5 Jul 1890 in Dartmouth and is buried in Camp Hill Cemetery. ^{[5] [6]}

As a young woman, Susan Ann "was pretty and affectionate, sang nicely and excelled at fine needlework." Her "superior qualities were highly adapted for the encouragement of a man who had to pass through many trying vicissitudes, during his checkered political course. Mrs. Howe was a lady of fine intellect, and her sound judgement and advice never failed in producing wholesome results. She was to her husband a help-meet indeed. Whenever the clouds lowered upon his house, as they sometimes did, she stood beside him as his stay and comforter, with words of cheer and consolation, always making the best out of the worst features of the trouble. She was fully aware of her husband's great talents, of his ambitions and of his faults, of which no man living is without, and she knew how to minister to every necessity as a "guiding angel,' and to lead by the hand, as it were, beside still waters. Preferentially Mrs. Howe was domestic in her habits; but deferentially and in obedience to her position, society claimed a large portion of her time… so that during Mr. Howe's palmy days, extending over a long period, there was very little repose and retirement from the cares and responsibilities of official life… her closing days were passed in comparative ease at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Thompson (sic)." ^[7] Joseph wrote To My Wife in love and appreciation. ^[8]

Susan Ann collected autographs, some of colonial officials, Nova Scotian personalities of the day, and some gifts of Lady Falkland. Susan Ann Howe's Autograph Album

Sources

1. ↑ Kay Hill, Joe Howe, the man who was Nova Scotia (Mclelland and Stewart: 1980), p. 30.
2. ↑ Marriage bond for Cathe. S.A. McNabb and Joseph Howe, Registration Year: 1828, Book 1800, page 5572, Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics.
3. ↑ M.G. Parks, compiler, My Dear Susan Ann : letters of Joseph Howe to his wife 1829 - 1836 (St. John's Newfoundland, Jesperson Press, 1985)
4. ↑ Orders in Council. OIC 1873-0788 “Gratuity to the widow of the late [Lieutenant] Governor Howe of Nova Scotia”; Library and Archives Canada, digital images of microfilm C-3305.
5. ↑ Punch, Terence M. and Allan E. Marble, The family of John Howe Halifax Loyalist and King's Printer, p. 322. article in Nova Scotia Historical Quarterly, vol. 6, no. 3 (1976).
6. ↑ Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics, database, (http://archives.gnb.ca : accessed 16 Dec 2009, Mrs. Joseph Howe (1891) entry, Volume 80 Number 196, citing Progress (Saint John,New Brunswick), 19 Dec 1891.
7. ↑ G.E. Fenety, Life and Times of the Hon. Joseph Howe..., pp. 68-69 (St. John, New Brunswick: E.S. Carter, 1896)
8. ↑ Poems and essays / by Joseph Howe. Montreal : J. Lovell, 1874, pages 92-93