LOWTHER, Hon. Anthony (aft.1694-1741), of Lowther, Westmld.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

20 July 1721 - 1722
1722 - 1741

Family and Education

b. aft. 1694, 3rd s. of John Lowther, M.P., 1st Visct. Lonsdale, by Katherine, da. of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne, 1st Bt., sis. of Thomas Thynne, M.P., 1st Visct. Weymouth. unm.

Offices Held

Commr. of revenue [I] 1726-34.

Biography

Anthony Lowther, one of the handsomest men of his time,1 was brought in on the Lawson interest for Cockermouth at a by-election in 1721. Returned unopposed for Westmorland on his family’s interest at the general election of 1722, he obtained an Irish place, which he resigned in 1734. Next year his brother, Lord Lonsdale, resigned the privy seal, not on any specific grievance but owing to his general dislike of the management of public affairs. According to Hervey, Lowther,

who very unreasonably thought his merit superior to an employment of £1,000 a year in Ireland, and for that reason quitted it, contributed to strengthen these opinions, hoping that his brother’s dislike of things would grow into a dislike of persons, and that he should blow him up to be an enemy to those whom his own vanity had induced him to think had not been enough his friends.2

He voted against the Spanish convention in 1739, absented himself from the division on the place bill in 1740, and died 24 Nov. 1741.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. and Corresp. vi. 163.
  • 2. Hervey, Mems. 451; HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 175.