James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale

James Lowther, 1st Earl Lonsdale (Richard Cosway)

James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale (5 August 1736 – 24 May 1802) was an English country landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons for 27 years from 1757 to 1784, when he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain as Earl of Lonsdale.

Life[edit]

Lowther Castle in the early 18th century

The son of Robert Lowther of Maulds Meaburn, Westmorland, and Catherine Pennington, he was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge.^[1]

He succeeded his father in 1745 to the baronetcy and the estates, including Lowther Hall, of his great-uncle Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, on 6 March 1751. He also inherited the estates of Sir William Lowther, 3rd Baronet, of Marske on 15 April 1756 and the estates of his cousin Sir James Lowther, 4th Baronet, of Whitehaven in 1755.^[2]

Lowther exercised influence over a number of "rotten" or "pocket" boroughs, including Appleby, a classic example of this type of constituency. In 1761 he was credited with securing the return of eight MPs—two each for Cumberland, Westmorland, and Cockermouth, and one each for Appleby and Carlisle.^[3] Later, in 1781, he secured the election of William Pitt the Younger as member for Appleby.^[4]

He married Mary Crichton-Stuart, daughter of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, and Mary Wortley-Montagu, 1st Baroness Mount Stuart, on 7 September 1761 and had a string of mistresses. He fell in love with the daughter of one of his tenants and made her his mistress keeping her in luxury. When she died he could not endure to have her buried and the body remained lying in bed until the increasing putrefaction became unbearable. He then had her body placed in a glass topped coffin that was placed in a cupboard. Eventually her body was buried in Paddington cemetery.

He was created Earl of Lonsdale on 24 May 1784 and Viscount Lowther on 26 October 1797, with special remainder to his third cousin Sir William Lowther, 2nd Baronet, of Little Preston.^[2]

On 9 June 1792 he fought a duel with a Captain Cuthbert of the Guards, when the latter refused to let the former's carriage pass through Mount Street in London where some rioting had been taking place. The Earl asked him if he knew who he was which this led to an unpleasant exchange of words following which the Earl felt obliged to challenge the Captain to a duel the next morning. A pistol ball passed through the flap of Cuthbert's coat but after the exchange of fire both men were unhurt. The matter was concluded with a handshake.

He was variously known as "Wicked Jimmy", the "Bad Earl", the "Gloomy Earl" and "Jimmy"^[5]^[6] or "Jemmy Grasp-all, Earl of Toadstool".^[7]^[8]

Death and succession[edit]

He died in 1802, having had no children by his wife. His earldom and baronetcy became extinct but he was succeeded as Viscount Lowther, according to the special remainder, by his third cousin William Lowther, 2nd Viscount Lowther, who was later (1807) advanced to Earl of Lonsdale of the second creation. The latter, a coal magnate, also inherited Lowther Castle, which he rebuilt between 1806 and 1814.

The Earl and the Wordsworth family[edit]

Lowther had accumulated debts to his solicitor, John Wordsworth, the father of William Wordsworth. Although Wordsworth worked for Lowther, Lowther never paid Wordsworth for his various expenses, which amounted to £4,000 from 1763 until Wordsworth's death in 1783. This debt was finally discharged after his death by his successor.^[9]

Notes[edit]

^ "Lowther, Sir James, Bart. (LWTR752SJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ ^a ^b "LOWTHER, Sir James, 5th Bt. (1736–1802), of Lowther, nr. Penrith, Westmld". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
^ Beckett, J. V.. "Lowther, James, earl of Lonsdale (1736–1802)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, Accessed 4 Nov. 2014 (subscription required)
^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lonsdale, Earls of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 987.
^ Hilton, Boyd (2006). A mad, bad, and dangerous people?: England, 1783-1846. New Oxford history of England. Oxford University Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-19-822830-9.
^ Kümin, Beat A. (2009). Political space in pre-industrial Europe. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 104. ISBN 0-7546-6072-9.
^ Caufield, Catherine (1981). The emperor of the United States of America and other magnificent British eccentrics. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 122. ISBN 0-7100-0957-7.
^ Davenport-Hines, Richard Peter Treadwell (1998). Gothic: four hundred years of excess, horror, evil, and ruin. Fourth Estate. p. 92. ISBN 1-85702-498-2.
^ Moorman, Mary. William Wordsworth: A Biography, The Early Years 1770-1803. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968. p. 8

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Portraits of James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Sir John Pennington, Bt Sir William Fleming, Bt	Member of Parliament for Cumberland 1757–1761 With: Sir John Pennington, Bt	Succeeded by Sir John Pennington, Bt Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bt
Preceded by Sir George Dalston, Bt Robert Lowther	Member of Parliament for Westmorland 1761–1763 With: John Upton	Succeeded by John Upton Robert Lowther
Preceded by Sir John Pennington, Bt Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bt	Member of Parliament for Cumberland 1762–1768 With: Sir John Pennington, Bt 1762–1768 Henry Curwen 1768	Succeeded by Henry Curwen Henry Fletcher
Preceded by Sir George Macartney George Johnstone	Member of Parliament for Cockermouth 1769–1774 With: George Johnstone	Succeeded by George Johnstone Fletcher Norton
Preceded by John Robinson Thomas Fenwick	Member of Parliament for Westmorland 1774–1775 With: Sir Michael le Fleming, Bt	Succeeded by Sir Michael le Fleming, Bt James Lowther
Preceded by Henry Curwen Henry Fletcher	Member of Parliament for Cumberland 1774–1784 With: Henry Fletcher	Succeeded by Henry Fletcher William Lowther
Preceded by Sir Merrick Burrell, Bt Peter Burrell	Member of Parliament for Haslemere 1780 With: Edward Norton	Succeeded by Edward Norton Walter Spencer Stanhope
Honorary titles
Preceded by Sir John Pennington, Bt	Lord Lieutenant of Westmorland 1758–1802	Succeeded by The Viscount Lowther
Preceded by The Earl of Egremont	Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland 1759–1802
Vacant Title last held by The Earl of Egremont	Custos Rotulorum of Cumberland 1765–1802
Vacant Title last held by The Earl of Egremont	Vice-Admiral of Cumberland 1765–1802	Vacant Title next held by The Earl of Lonsdale
Vacant Title last held by Sir James Lowther, Bt	Vice-Admiral of Westmorland 1765–1802	Vacant
Peerage of Great Britain
New title	Viscount Lowther 1797–1802	Succeeded by William Lowther
New title	Earl of Lonsdale 1784–1802	Extinct
Baronetage of Nova Scotia
Preceded by Henry Lowther	Baronet (of Lowther) 1751–1802	Extinct

[1] "Lowther, Sir James, Bart. (LWTR752SJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[HoP-2] "LOWTHER, Sir James, 5th Bt. (1736–1802), of Lowther, nr. Penrith, Westmld". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 7 March 2018.

[3] Beckett, J. V.. "Lowther, James, earl of Lonsdale (1736–1802)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, Accessed 4 Nov. 2014 (subscription required)

[4] Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lonsdale, Earls of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 987.

[5] Hilton, Boyd (2006). A mad, bad, and dangerous people?: England, 1783-1846. New Oxford history of England. Oxford University Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-19-822830-9.

[6] Kümin, Beat A. (2009). Political space in pre-industrial Europe. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 104. ISBN 0-7546-6072-9.

[7] Caufield, Catherine (1981). The emperor of the United States of America and other magnificent British eccentrics. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 122. ISBN 0-7100-0957-7.

[8] Davenport-Hines, Richard Peter Treadwell (1998). Gothic: four hundred years of excess, horror, evil, and ruin. Fourth Estate. p. 92. ISBN 1-85702-498-2.

[9] Moorman, Mary. William Wordsworth: A Biography, The Early Years 1770-1803. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968. p. 8

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