Howells

Q: What stories are told about the Howells family?

The Howells family is associated with Howells and Hymnus Paradisi. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

also Howell, ap Hywel

Son of Hywel the Good, the surname of the great Welsh law-king.

Origin: Deheubarth, Wales
Famous bearer: Herbert Howells (1892–1983), composer (Hymnus Paradisi)
Register: Welsh family

Territory of Howells

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Howells

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Howells community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Howells has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Howells clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

Help rebuild the Howells clan →

What does the Howells name mean?

From ap Hywel, son of Hywel, the personal name of Hywel Dda ('Hywel the Good', c.880–950), king of Deheubarth and the Welsh prince traditionally credited with the codification of the Laws of Hywel Dda, the foundational law-code of mediaeval Wales. Hywel was carried as a personal name through every subsequent generation of the Welsh princely houses; the patronymic ap Hywel compressed into Howell and Howells under Tudor naming policy. The Welsh-form Hywel survived alongside the Anglicised Howell, especially in Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire.

The history of Howells

Hywel Dda, Hywel ap Cadell, c.880–950, was king of Seisyllwg from c.910 and king of all Deheubarth from 920, and arguably the most consequential native ruler of mediaeval Wales. The Welsh law tradition associated with his name (Cyfraith Hywel), preserved in three regional redactions through the high Middle Ages, was the most sophisticated indigenous law-code of pre-Norman Britain, and remained in force in much of native Wales until the Statute of Rhuddlan (1284) and the Acts of Union (1536). The personal name Hywel was carried in the South Welsh princely line through every generation of the Deheubarth dynasty.

Herbert Howells (1892–1983), the Lydney-born composer of Hymnus Paradisi, the Stabat Mater and the great cycle of Anglican choral evening services, was the foremost British church composer of the mid-20th century. James Howells (1814–1892), the Cardiff draper, founded the Howells department store on Cardiff's St Mary Street in 1865, closed in 2017 after 152 years on the same site. Ursula Howells (1922–2005), the actress, was a daughter of the composer Herbert Howells.

Champions of the Howells name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Herbert Howells
The Lydney-born composer whose 1938 Hymnus Paradisi, written in private grief over the death of his nine-year-old son and not performed publicly until 1950, stands at the centre of the twentieth-century English-language choral tradition, and whose long teaching career at the Royal College of Music shaped two generations of British composers.

Notable bearers of the Howells name

Herbert Howells (1892–1983), composer (Hymnus Paradisi)
James Howells (1814–1892), Cardiff draper, founder of Howells department store
Ursula Howells (1922–2005), actress

Stories of Howells

Howells and Hymnus Paradisi
1950
From the autumn of 1935 to the summer of 1936, in the upstairs music-study of the Howells family flat at 3 Beverley Close, Barnes, in south-west London, Herbert Howells, in his forty-fourth year, composed a Latin-language Requiem-style choral-orchestral setting of seven movements he called Hymnus Paradisi (Hymn of Paradise) in private grief for his nine-year-old son Michael, who had died at the family Sussex cottage of poliomyelitis on the sixth of September 1935 after a three-day illness. Howells refused to perform or publish the piece for the next fourteen years. By his own statement to his biographer Christopher Palmer, the work was a private working-out, between a composer and his lost son and his God; it was not for the public ear. It was Howells's fellow English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who had himself lost a son and who came to look at the manuscript on a 1949 visit to the Howells flat, who persuaded him to allow the Three Choirs Festival to perform Hymnus Paradisi at the Gloucester Cathedral festival of September 1950. The premiere on the seventh of September 1950, conducted by the composer, was, by every contemporary report, the most-affecting public musical event of the immediate-post-war English-cathedral-music tradition. Hymnus Paradisi has been continuously in the Anglican choral-festival repertoire since.
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Frequently asked

What does the surname Howells mean?

Where does the Howells family come from?

The Howells family is rooted in Deheubarth, in Wales. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Sir Gâr and Ceredigion. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Howells family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Howells name has been concentrated in Sir Benfro and Powys. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Howells a Wales surname?

Yes, Howells is a Wales surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Wales, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Howells surname?

Hywel Dda, Hywel ap Cadell, c. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Howells name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Howells family known for?

Son of Hywel the Good, the surname of the great Welsh law-king. Hywel Dda, Hywel ap Cadell, c.

Who is the most famous Howells?

The best-known bearer of the Howells name is Herbert Howells (1892–1983), composer (Hymnus Paradisi). Other prominent figures of the family include James Howells (1814–1892), Cardiff draper, founder of Howells department store and Ursula Howells (1922–2005), actress.

Who are some famous Howellses?

Notable bearers of the Howells name include Herbert Howells (1892–1983), composer (Hymnus Paradisi), James Howells (1814–1892), Cardiff draper, founder of Howells department store and Ursula Howells (1922–2005), actress. Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Howells family?

The Howells family is associated with Howells and Hymnus Paradisi. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Howells and Hymnus Paradisi?

From the autumn of 1935 to the summer of 1936, in the upstairs music-study of the Howells family flat at 3 Beverley Close, Barnes, in south-west London, Herbert Howells, in his forty-fourth year, composed a Latin-language Requiem-style choral-orchestral setting of seven movements he called Hymnus Paradisi (Hymn of Paradise) in private grief for his nine-year-old son Michael, who had died at the family Sussex cottage of poliomyelitis on the sixth of September 1935 after a three-day illness. Howells refused to perform or publish the piece for the next fourteen years. The event is dated to 1950.

Is Howell the same family as Howells?

Yes. Howell is a historical spelling variant of the Howells name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is ap Hywel the same family as Howells?

Yes. ap Hywel is a historical spelling variant of the Howells name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Howells surname found today?

Wales is the primary historical home of the Howells surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Wales origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Howells family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Howells family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Wales so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Howells family today?

The seat for the head of the Howells family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.