Thomas Hovell

Thomas Hovell was the chief partner in the firm of Hovell, Staples, and Eaden, haberdashers, mercers, papermakers, etc. of Cambridge (Cambridge Intelligencer, 17 September 1793; 9 November 1793).  Hovell, along with Olinthus Gregory, Robert Hall, Peet Musgrave, and several other Cambridge friends of Benjamin Flower (many of whom appear in the Flower Correspondence), was present when a mob attacked Flower at his house in Bridge Street in April 1797 after a particularly contentious political meeting that had sought the resignations of the King’s ministers (Greene xi-xv, 23).  In conjunction with J. T. Rutt of London, Hovell helped establish the fund to defray Flower’s expenses incurred during his imprisonment in Newgate in 1799 (Cambridge Intelligencer, 19 October 1799).