James Howell

He had a family tree parallel to the Herbert family of Swansea, Earl of Pembroke descendant of Nest and Hywel Dda of Wales. Gerald Cambrensis Gerald of Wales son of Nest, was a historiographer royal five hundred years before and on a journey of conquest to Ireland, the story of which is one of the finest works of literature in the Welsh language. James Howell may also have been closely linked, by family, to Thomas Howell, a 16th-century love poet who was probably his grandfather and who served the first Earl (see above) in a clerical capacity. While he corresponded with a certain Earl of Pembroke in his own Epistolae Ho-Elianae and was great friends with Ben Jonson, his literary father, he himself does not make mention of this family tie. His line of descent was from Dafydd Gam.Thomas Howell (born about 1538), who is thought to have hailed from Dunster, Somerset, with roots in Caerfyrddyn, may have been one of the gentry encouraged to learn Latin at the time. Howells Proverbs (1659), contains probably his most famous quote; All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Bio from Wikipedia - See more on en.wikipedia.org Text under CC-BY-SA license