Howard, Francis, Baron of Effingham, governor of Virginia from February, 1684 to October 20, 1688, was a distant kinsman of Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, who commanded the English fleet in 1688 in its famous battle with the Spanish Armada. He was son of Sir William Howard of Lingfield, in Surrey county, England, by his wife Frances, daughter of Sir George Courthope, of Whiligh, county of Sussex, knight, and succeeded in 1681 to the title of Lord Howard of Effingham on the death of Lord Charles Howard, grandson of the hero of the battle of the Armada. He was commissioned governor of Virginia, September 28, 1683, and arrived in Virginia in February, 1684. Among his first proceedings was one to summon Robert Beverley before the council on the old charge of instigating the plant cutters. Found guilty, Beverley was released on his making an humble and abject apology, which doubtless, like Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., on a similar occasion, he regarded as a mere formality. It was far from making him submissive to the governor's will, and when the governor set to work to exalt his prerogatives at the expense of the liberties of the assembly, Beverley as clerk, and his friend Philip Ludwell, firmly resisted him. Hitherto the governors of Virginia had seldom, if ever, used their negative on the laws of the assembly. Lord Howard asserted this right, and was successful in making it a part of the constitution ever afterwards. He attempted to get the house to authorize himself and the council to lay taxes on urgent occasions, but failed. He exacted a fee for attaching the seal of the colony to land grants and, erecting a new court of chancery, made himself a petty lord chancellor. All who opposed him in any way were made to feel the effects of resentment. Robert Beverley was removed from his office as clerk and Ludwell was suspended from the council. In one measure, at least, Howard deserved the gratitude of the people. In the summer of 1684 he went to Albany, and there with the governor of New York made a treaty with the Five Nations, which put an end to the raids of the Senecas on the frontiers. At length Howard departed for England, October 20, 1688, leaving Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., in charge of the government. The assembly sent Ludwell as their agent to urge complaints against him. He did not return, but he was allowed to retain his office of governor as an absentee with half his salary, while his duties were discharged by a lieutenant. He died March 30, 1694. While he lived in Virginia, he spent much of his time at Rosegill, the house of the Wormeleys, on the Rappahannock.
On August 31, 1685, his wife Lady Philadelphia Howard (daughter of Sir Thomas Pelham), died in Virginia, aged thirty-one, and her remains were carried to England and interred at Lingfield. On the way over, his daughter Margaret Frances, who accompanied her mother's body, also died.
