Luke Howard, the son of Robert Howard and his second wife, Elizabeth, was born on 28 November 1772 in Red Cross Street in the City of London. Robert and Elizabeth had four children in addition to Luke, one of whom died in infancy and two of his three half brothers died, like their mother, in their early twenties.

Luke Howard’s father Robert had made a considerable fortune in manufacturing and as the main supplier of the Argand lamp which was the main source of lamp before the arrival of the kerosene lamp.

In 1796 Luke Howard married Mariabella Eliot, the only daughter of John and Mary Eliot.  Mariabella came from a wealthy family and Luke’s own business, Howard’s of Fleet Street, had not been going particularly well and he was anxious about money to support a family.  He gratefully accepted an offer from William Allen to manage his pharmaceutical business in Plaistow in Essex which provided the family with comfort and financial security.

He has been referred to as a pharmacist and manufacturing chemist by profession and meteorologist by vocation.

And Luke Howard discovered:
In passing between the works and my dwelling I resumed the
observations I had long been making on the face of the sky.

Argand Lamp

© Royal Society

 Travelling apothecaries’ scale for weighing chemicals and pharmaceuticals, thought to have belonged to Luke Howard FRS

Mariabella and Luke had eight children, all born in Plaistow, two of whom died in childhood and only two of whom survived him.

Mary – 17 November 1797 died in 1816
Robert – 26 June 1801 died 2 June 1871
Elizabeth – 26 January 1803 died 19 January 1836
Rachel – 18 June 1804 died 24 September 1837
Mariabella – 31 July 1805 died 7 June 1806
A son, not named – 11 August 1806 died 20 August 1806
John Eliot – 11 December 1807 – 22 November 1883
Joseph – 30 May 1811 died 13 June 1833

In 1813 they moved from Plaistow with their remaining six children to Tottenham Green where the recordings which were to make his name continued.

Mariabella was also a writer in later life.  She published three books between 1827 and 1850: Hints on the Improvement of Day Schools (1827), The Young Servants’ Own Book (1828), and Boys’ Own Book (1850).

Chesterton House, Balaam Street, Plaistow Home of Luke Howard © London Borough of Newham

Luke Howard's obituary in the Friend (1864) concluded:
"Never, probably, was Science wooed more entirely for her own sake...
never was there more a thorough 'labour of love' than that which he bestowed.