George Howe (printer)

Another of these expedients was becoming a professional mobile food stand for the public, he did this for 3 years.

His amiable disposition saw him given the nickname “George Happy.”^[5]

Howe's eldest son, Robert (1795–1829), helped his father from age 9, but as a teenager rebelled, indulging in excessive alcohol consumption and fathering an illegitimate child before converting to Methodism under the guidance of Ralph Mansfield and returning to the family business in 1820.^[6][7][8] Moreover, his editorial policies, stemming from his religious convictions and the newspaper's continuing support for the government, led to him being horsewhipped by William Redfern.^[2] Starting 1 January 1821, the Gazette was jointly edited by Mansfield, a division of duties that Howe hoped would facilitate his retirement from the newspaper. Less than a month later, on 29 January 1829, Howe drowned in a boating accident off Fort Denison, leaving his wife, Ann, as proprietor of the Gazette and Mansfield as the editor.

George Terry Howe (c. 1806–63), Robert's younger half-brother by his father's common law wife, Elizabeth Easton, went to Launceston, Tasmania in October 1821, becoming the town's first printer and the founding editor of the Tasmanian and Port Dalrymple Advertiser. In 1825, he was persuaded by the Lt. Governor Sir George Arthur to form a partnership with James Ross in Hobart, where he was appointed government printer and co-edited the Hobart Town Gazette. In 1827, he left the Gazette to edit the Tasmanian for six months before returning to Sydney. He died there on 6 April 1863.^[9]