Ann Howe

Who was Ann Howe?

Ann Howe was a newspaper proprietor in the colony of New South Wales who published a paper which vigorously supported the liberal Governor Richard Bourke and represented the emancipist voice.

She was born in Sydney, the child of two ex-convicts: Sarah Bird, the colony's first female publican, and John Morris. In December 1821 she married Robert Howe, the son and heir of George Howe, an ex-convict and successful publisher of the Sydney Gazette and printer of government publications, who had recently died. Ann bore Robert four children and raised his son by a convict woman. After he drowned in 1829, she prevented the sale of the Sydney Gazette to its rival the Sydney Herald by her husband's executors, then took an active role in running the paper. She claimed the executors, Richard Jones, and Rev. Ralph Mansfield, had run the business down and were about to accept a low price when she persuaded a reluctant Jones to let her manage it.

She aligned the paper with Bourke, and against the conservative 'exclusives'. The exclusives were represented by the Herald.