John Howlett (1731–1804) was an English political economist and cleric.

Life

He was son of John Howlett of

Bedworth Bedworth ( or locally ) is a market town and unparished area in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It is situated between Coventry, 6 miles (9.5 km) to the south, a ...

in Warwickshire. He matriculated at St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, on 10 November 1749, aged 18, and graduated B.A. from

St. John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

in 1755, M.A. in 1795, and B.D. in 1796. He was presented to the living of Great Dunmow, Essex, in 1771, and was also vicar of

Great Badow Great Baddow is an urban village and civil parish in the Chelmsford borough of Essex, England. It is close to the city of Chelmsford, and, with a population of over 13,000,Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

on 29 February 1804.

Works

Howlett wrote on the statistics and condition of the people, and criticised the theories and writings of Richard Price. In contradiction to Price, he maintained that enclosures resulted from the increase in population. His works, with separately published sermons, are: *''An Examination of Dr. Price's Essay on the Population of England and Wales'', 1781 *''An Enquiry into the Influence which Enclosures have had upon the Population of England'', 1786 *''An Essay on the Population of Ireland'', 1786 *''Enclosures a cause of Improved Agriculture'', 1787. This is a rejoinder to reviews of his previous work on enclosures. *''The Insufficiency of the causes to which the Increase of our Poor and the Poor's Rates have been generally ascribed'', 1788 *At end of Wood's Account of Shrewsbury House of Industry a ''Correspondence with Howlett'', 1795 *''An Examination of Mr. Pitt's Speech in the House of Commons on 12 Feb. 1796, relative to the condition of the Poor'', 1796 *''Dispersion of the present gloomy apprehensions of late repeatedly suggested by the Decline of our Corn Trade, and conclusions of a directly opposite tendency established upon well-authenticated facts. To which are added Observations upon the first Report of the Committee on Waste Lands'', 1798 *''The Monthly Reviewers reviewed in a Letter to those Gentlemen, pointing out their Misrepresentations and fallacious Reasonings in the Account of the Pamphlet'', 1798 *''An Inquiry concerning the Influence of Tithes upon Agriculture'', with remarks on Arthur Young, 1801

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Howlett, John 1731 births 1804 deaths English economists 18th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of St John's College, Oxford People from Bedworth