LOWTHER, Sir James, 4th Bt. (c.1673-1755), of Whitehaven, Cumb.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

26 Nov. 1694 - 1702
1708 - 1722
2 May 1723 - 1727
1727 - 2 Jan. 1755

Family and Education

b. c. 1673, 2nd s. of Sir John Lowther, 2nd Bt., M.P., of Whitehaven by Jane, da. of Woolley Leigh of Addington, Surr.  educ. Queen’s, Oxf. 17 Dec. 1688, aged 15; M. Temple 1682, called 1712, bencher 1714, reader 1715.  suc. fa. (who had disinherited his e.s. Christopher) to Whitehaven estates 17 Jan. 1706, and to btcy. on Christopher’s d. 2 Oct. 1731.  unm.

Offices Held

Principal storekeeper of the Ordnance 1696-1712; director, South Sea Co. 1733-6; alderman, Carlisle 1739- d.

Biography

In 1754 Lowther was returned unopposed. Dupplin’s list of 1754 classes him as ‘doubtful’. Lowther did much to develop his collieries and the harbour at Whitehaven; and, being parsimonious, at his death on 2 Jan. 1755 was, according to the Gentleman’s Magazine (1755, p. 42), ‘worth above a million’.

He bequeathed his Cumberland estates and a great fortune in cash and mortgages to his third cousin once removed, Sir William Lowther, 3rd Bt., of Marske and Holker, and his estates in Westmorland, Middlesex and Surrey, and the reversion of his Cumberland estates should Sir William die without male issue to his second cousin once removed, Sir James Lowther, 5th Bt., of Lowther.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes