This distinguished officer was the fifth son of Emanuel Scrope Viscount Howe, and commenced his military career as a cornet in the Duke of Cumberland's regiment of light dragoons, in which he was promoted to a lieutenancy on the 21st of September, 1747. The regiment was disbanded in 1749, shortly after the conclusion of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was signed in October of the preceding year. He was promoted to the rank of captain in the twentieth regiment on the 1st of June, 1750, and to that of major in the sixtieth (afterwards fifty-eighth) regiment on the 4th of January, 1756. On the 17th of December, 1757, he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the fifty-eighth regiment. During the "_Seven Years' War_," he served in America under Major-General Wolfe with great reputation, and was advanced to the brevet rank of colonel on the 19th of February 1762. Colonel the Honorable William Howe was appointed by King George III. to the colonelcy of the FORTY-SIXTH regiment on the 21st of November 1764. His Majesty also advanced him to the rank of major-general on the 25th of May, 1772. Major-general the Honorable William Howe was appointed to succeed General Gage in the chief command of the British Forces in America shortly after the commencement of the War of Independence, and arrived at Boston with Major-Generals Clinton and Burgoyne in May, 1775. Major-General the Honorable Sir William Howe, K.B., was appointed by His Majesty, colonel of the twenty-third Royal Welsh Fusiliers, from the FORTY-SIXTH regiment, on the 11th of May, 1775. He commanded at the attack on Bunker's Hill on the 17th of June following, was besieged in Boston during the winter, evacuated that town in the spring of 1776, and retired to Halifax, in Nova Scotia. On the 1st of January, 1776, he received the local rank of General in North America. In June he arrived at Staten Island, where he was joined by his brother Admiral Richard Lord Howe. The brothers here informed the American Congress, that they had received full power to grant pardon to such as should return to their obedience; but the Commissioners appointed by that body declined the proposition as unworthy of attention. In August, he defeated the Americans at Long Island, and took possession of New York in September, 1776. After the campaign in the Jerseys, in 1777, Sir William Howe sailed from Sandy Hook and entered Chesapeake Bay. Having previously secured the command of the Schuylkill, he crossed it with his army, and defeated the Americans at Brandywine on the 11th of September, and at Germantown on the 4th of October, 1777. On the 29th of August, 1777, His Majesty advanced him to the rank of lieut.-general. In the spring of 1778, he returned to England, having resigned the command of the army to General Sir Henry Clinton. On the 21st of April, 1786, Sir William Howe was removed to the colonelcy of the nineteenth (late twenty-third) Light Dragoons, which he retained until his decease. On the 12th