James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk

James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk, Earl Marshal (10 February 1606/1607 – 7 January 1688), was grandson of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, and was also 3rd Baron Howard de Walden. He was succeeded in the earldom, a revival of an earlier title held by distant ancestors, by two of his brothers.

Succession to earldom and family

He succeeded aged 33 in the earldom on the death of his father who died aged 55 on 3 June 1640. The third Lord Suffolk married three times. On 1 December in the same year he married Lady Susan Rich, daughter of Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, and by her had a daughter, Lady Essex Howard. Susan died on 15 May 1649.

Lord Suffolk remarried about February 1650, Lady Barbara Wentworth, daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, knt., and widow of Hon. Richard Wenman and latterly Sir Richard Wentworth, knt. The second Lady Suffolk died on 13 December 1681, leaving a mutual daughter, his second child, Lady Elizabeth Howard, groom of the stole to the queen. After December 1681 and before 8 May 1682 Lord Suffolk married Lady Anne Montagu, eldest daughter of Robert Montagu, 3rd Earl of Manchester by whom he had no children.^[1]

Howard was succeeded in his more senior title by his brothers; the barony Howard de Walden fell into abeyance for nearly a century, until it was called out of abeyance for a descendant of his elder daughter Lady Essex Howard, later Baroness Griffin. The title has since passed by virtue of his younger daughter Lady Elizabeth Howard, later Lady Elizabeth Felton to be called out of abeyance in 2004 in favour of Mary Hazel Caridwen Czernin, eldest daughter of the 9th Lord Griffin.

Land and buildings

Lord Suffolk owned central London property including Suffolk House and appears to have left his Jacobean house, Audley End, Essex built by the 1st Earl to the descendants of his elder daughter.

Notes