Howe was born on Pearl Street in Boston, Massachusetts on November 10, 1801. Samuel Gridley Howes grandfather Edward Compton Howe was one of the Indians at the Boston Tea Party. His father Joseph Neals Howe was a ship-owner and rope manufacturer in Boston. The business was prosperous until he supplied the U.S. Government with ropes during the war of 1812 and was never paid. His mother Patty (Gridley) Howe was considered to be one of the most beautiful women of her day.