Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk

Who was Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk?

Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal was the son of Lord Thomas Howard and Mary Elizabeth Savile. Upon his uncle's death, he inherited the titles of 17th Baron Furnivall and 8th Duke of Norfolk. He married Maria Shireburn, daughter of Sir Nicholas Shireburn, 1st and last Bt., of Stonyhurst Hall, on 26 May 1709, when she was age 16 and a half, with a fortune of more than £30,000.

At the time of the Jacobite Rising of 1715 he used his influence to secure the acquittal of his brother Edward on the charge of high treason. The Duke himself was arrested on 29 October 1722 under suspicion of involvement in a Jacobite plot, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. His wife, refused permission to visit, prevailed upon the Earl of Carlisle to act as surety for his bail in May 1723. Howard was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England from 1729-30.

His marriage is said to have been unhappy, and his wife, a staunch Catholic and Jacobite, separated from him when he—in her words—"truckled to the Usurper".

The Duke died childless on 23 December 1732 at age 49. Upon his death, the title passed to his brother Edward.