Michael Howe

Michael Howe (1787 - 21 October 1818) was a British convict who became a notorious bushranger and gang leader in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Australia. Howe was born at Pontefract, Yorkshire, England. He served two years on a merchant vessel at Hull before deserting to join the navy as a seaman. In 1811 he was sentenced to seven years transportation for highway robbery of a miller. Howe's exploits inspired the earliest play about Tasmania. Titled Michael Howe: The Terror! of Van Diemen's Land, it used William Wentworth's writings on Australia as its source material, and premiered at The Old Vic in London in 1821. Another early play about Howe was William Thomas Moncrieff's Van Diemen's Land: An Operatic Drama (1830).