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'William Howley' (1766 - 1848) was a British clergyman who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828 to 1848. He was born in 1766 at Ropley, Hampshire, where his father was vicar. He was educated at Winchester School and in 1783 went to New College, Oxford.
In 1809, he was appointed regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford (as well as becoming a Fellow of Winchester and a Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.) In October 1813 at Lambeth Palace, he was consecrated Bishop of London, a post he was to occupy until 1828, when he then became Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the last of the 'Prince-Archbishops'. He was an active English Freemason, having joined a lodge in Bristol, and served as its Worshipful Master before his elevation to the episcopate.
Archbishop Howley presided over the coronation of William IV and Queen Adelaide in 1831. At 5 a.m. on June 20th, 1837, accompanied by the Lord Chamberlain and the Marquis of Conyngham, the Archbishop went to Kensington Palace to inform Princess Victoria that she was now Queen of England.
Architecture was of particular interest to him. During his career, he initiated the renovation and/or rebuilding of: his official house at Oxford, his town residence while Bishop of London (#32 St. James's Square), Fulham Palace (also while he was Bishop of London), and finally, extensive renovations to Lambeth Palace. This last project was a virtual reconstruction of the Palace carried out by Edward Blore, the work beginning after 1828 and done mainly in the Gothic Revival style. It took several years and cost upwards of £60,000.
William Howley was married on August 29, 1805 to Mary Frances Belli, a daughter of John Belli, EICS, (1740-1805) of Southampton who was Private Secretary to Warren Hastings. The Howleys had 2 sons and three daughters, neither son reaching adulthood. One of his daughters married Sir George Howland Willoughby Beaumont, a nephew of Sir George Beaumont. William Howley died in 1848 and was interred at Addington after an elaborate funeral.