Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Howell, Alexander Nathaniel Yatman

c.1863 – probate, 30 January 1923

His only publication, much-quoted, was Notes on the topography of Portsmouth, together with historical and statistical information, published in 1913. He was prompted to put his considerable knowledge of the city - acquired as a ‘conveyancing solicitor’ – into print after being asked by the journalist and historian W.G. Gates for help in compiling his monumental History of Portsmouth, published in 1900 to mark (a year late) the centenary of the Hampshire Telegraph.

Howell described his work as giving ‘much information of an Antiquarian nature, which has not hitherto been available’. It includes a 79-page A-Z topography section, with some short pieces on specific items, such as the ‘Cherry Garden Field’, the ‘Gates of Portsmouth’, ‘Southsea and the Common’ etc’. Also included are several plans and charters (in English, apparently following East’s Extracts from Records of 1891). He quotes Mottley’s History of Portsmouth (1801) and the Slights’ Chronicles (1828).

He also published Stamp Collecting Considered as a Science in 1891 (58 pages, Bury St Edmund’s, 1891) and a History of the Phoenix Lodge etc (273 pages, Portsmouth, 1894). In retirement he lived at ‘Carnarvon’, Southsea.

Sources

British Library Catalogue

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

   A solid topographical reference source.

Relevant published works

• Notes on the topography of Portsmouth, together with historical and statistical information, 1913

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Howell’s own copy, with added notes and copies of illustrations, probably for a second edition, is in the collection of the Portsmouth History Centre.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 14 October 2025

Key Words

Portsmouth, solicitor, topography

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