Life As Archbishop of Canterbury
Howley was Archbishop during the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts (1828), the Emancipation of the Catholics (1829) and the passing of the Great Reform Act (1832.) The bench of bishops was generally opposed to all three measures. As Archbishop, Howley was their spokesman and his heart-felt opposition to the Great Reform Act led to his carriage being attacked in the streets of Canterbury.
Like very many other bishops at that time, Howley was an "old-High Churchman." These inherited a tradition of high views of the sacraments from the Caroline Divines and their successors. They held Catholic beliefs but were consistently anti-Roman. They were often despised by the more extreme Tractarians and their beliefs were often obscured.
Archbishop Howley presided over the coronation of William IV and Queen Adelaide in 1831. At 5 a.m. on 20 June 1837, accompanied by the Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis Conyngham, the Archbishop went to Kensington Palace to inform Princess Victoria that she was now Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
Architecture was of particular interest to him. During his career, he initiated the renovation and rebuilding of: his official house at Oxford, his town residence while Bishop of London (32 St. James's Square), Fulham Palace (also while he was Bishop of London), and finally, extensive renovations to Lambeth Palace. This last project was a virtual reconstruction of the Palace carried out by Edward Blore, the work beginning after 1828 and done mainly in the Gothic Revival style. It took several years and cost upwards of £60,000.
William Howley was married on 29 August 1805 to Mary Frances Belli, a daughter of John Belli, EICS, (1740–1805) of Southampton who had been Private Secretary to Warren Hastings. The Howleys had two sons and three daughters; neither son reached adulthood. One of his daughters married Sir George Howland Willoughby Beaumont, a nephew of Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet. William Howley died in 1848 and was interred at Addington after an elaborate funeral.
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