Josias Howe was an English divine born about 1611. He was the son of Thomas Howe, rector of Grendon-Underwood, Buckinghamshire.
Howe told Aubrey

John Aubrey

John Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives...

 that Shakespeare took his idea of Dogberry

Dogberry

Dogberry is a self-satisfied night constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.In the play, Dogberry is the chief of the citizen-police in Messina. As is usual in Shakespearean comedy, and Renaissance comedy generally, he is a figure of comic incompetence...

 from a constable of Grendon. He was elected scholar of Trinity College, Oxford

Trinity College, Oxford

The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...

, on 12 June 1632, and graduated B.A. on 18 June 1634, M.A. in 1638. On 26 May 1637 he was chosen fellow of his college. A sermon which he delivered before the king

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 at Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

 on Psalm iv. 7 was, it is said, ordered by [Charles I of England|Charles]] to be printed about 1644 in red at Lichfield's press at Oxford. Only thirty copies are supposed to have been printed, probably without a title-page.

Hearne, who purchased a copy at the sale of Dr. Charlett's library on 14 January 1723, has given an interesting account of it in his edition of Robert of Gloucester

Robert of Gloucester (historian)

Robert of Gloucester wrote a chronicle of British, English, and Norman history sometime in the mid- or late-thirteenth century. The Chronicle survives in some 16 manuscripts, ranging in date from the early fourteenth to mid-fifteenth centuries, and was of considerable interest to contemporaries...

's Chronicle. Howe's preaching before the court at Oxford was much admired, and on 10 July 1646 he was created B.D.

Bachelor of Divinity

In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies....

 Howe was removed from his fellowship by the parliamentary visitors in 1648 for 'non-appearance', but was restored in 1660, and died in college on 28 August 1701. He has commendatory verses before the Works of Thomas Randolph

Thomas Randolph (poet)

Thomas Randolph was an English poet and dramatist. He was baptized on 18 June 1605 and was the uncle of American colonist William Randolph.-Education:...

, 1638, and before the 'Comedies, Tragicomedies, and other Poems' of Wm. Cartwright (London, 1651).