High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Howe (October 14, 1754 – December 27, 1835) was a loyalist printer during the American Revolution, a printer and Postmaster in Halifax, the father of the famous Joseph Howe, a spy prior to the War of 1812, and eventually a Magistrate of the Colony of Nova Scotia. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts Bay colony, the son of Joseph Howe, a tin plate worker of Puritan ancestry, and Rebeccah Hart.