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 politician and landowner. He was a Member of Parliament for over twenty years before, in 1784, he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain as Baron Lowther.

The son of Robert Lowther and Catherine Pennington, he was educated at the University of Cambridge. He 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.^[1]

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 he 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.

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"^[2]^[3] or "Jemmy Grasp-all, Earl of Toadstool"^[4]^[5]

The Earl and the Wordsworth family

He 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 by his heir, William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale of the second creation, in 1802.^[6]

External links

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

References

↑ 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)
↑ 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

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Sir John Pennington, Bt Sir William Fleming, Bt	Member of Parliament for Cumberland with Sir John Pennington, Bt 1757–1761	Succeeded by Sir John Pennington, Bt Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bt
Preceded by Sir George Dalston, Bt Robert Lowther	Member of Parliament for Westmorland with John Upton 1761–1763	Succeeded by John Upton Robert Lowther
Preceded by Sir John Pennington, Bt Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bt	Member of Parliament for Cumberland with Sir John Pennington, Bt 1762–1768 Henry Curwen 1768 1762–1768	Succeeded by Henry Curwen Henry Fletcher
Preceded by Sir George Macartney George Johnstone	Member of Parliament for Cockermouth with George Johnstone 1769–1774	Succeeded by George Johnstone Fletcher Norton
Preceded by John Robinson Thomas Fenwick	Member of Parliament for Westmorland with Sir Michael le Fleming, Bt 1774–1775	Succeeded by Sir Michael le Fleming, Bt James Lowther
Preceded by Henry Curwen Henry Fletcher	Member of Parliament for Cumberland with Henry Fletcher 1774–1784	Succeeded by Henry Fletcher William Lowther
Preceded by Sir Merrick Burrell, Bt Peter Burrell	Member of Parliament for Haslemere with Edward Norton 1780	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

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