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William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale

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The Right Honourable
The Earl of Lonsdale
FRS PC
Postmaster General
In office
9 September 1841 – 30 December 1845
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterSir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded byThe Earl of Lichfield
Succeeded byThe Earl of St Germans
Lord President of the Council
In office
27 February 1852 – 17 December 1852
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Earl of Derby
Preceded byThe Marquess of Lansdowne
Succeeded byThe Earl Granville
Personal details
Born(1787-07-21)21 July 1787
Died4 March 1872(1872-03-04) (aged 84)
NationalityBritish
Political partyTory

William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, PC, FRS (21 July 1787 – 4 March 1872), styled Viscount Lowther between 1807 and 1844, was a British Tory politician.

Background

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Lonsdale was the eldest son of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, and Lady Augusta, daughter of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland. Henry Lowther was his younger brother. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.[1][2]

Political career

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Lowther Castle, seat of the Earls of Lonsdale

Lonsdale was returned to parliament for Cockermouth in 1808, a seat he held until 1813,[3] and later represented Westmorland between 1813 and 1831 and 1832 and 1841,[4] Dunwich in 1832[5] and West Cumberland between 1832 and 1833.[6] He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1818[7] and served under the Duke of Wellington as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests between 1828 and 1830 and under Sir Robert Peel as Treasurer of the Navy and Vice-President of the Board of Trade between 1834 and 1835.

In 1841 he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Lowther and held office under Peel as Postmaster General between 1841 and 1845. In 1844 he succeeded his father in the earldom of Lonsdale. He held his last ministerial office as Lord President of the Council,[8] with a seat in the cabinet, in 1852, in the Earl of Derby's first administration.

Lonsdale was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 5 July 1810.[9] He was also Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland and Westmorland between 1844 and 1868.[1]

Personal life

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Lord Lonsdale never married, but acknowledged three illegitimate children born to opera singers or dancers; he left them substantial sums in his will. His daughter with Caroline Saintfal, Marie Caroline, was born in Paris in 1818.[10] Another daughter born the same year, Frances ("Fanny") Lowther (1818–1890), was registered as the daughter of "Narcisse Chassepomp", in fact Pierre-Narcisse Chaspoux, formerly a dancer at the Paris Opera and then in London, who in 1821 gave birth to the artist Charles Meryon.[11] Frances (Fanny) married Henry Broadwood MP (1793–1878, of the piano-making family), and was the mother of Brig-Gen. Arthur Broadwood (1848–1928). With Emilia Cresotti, an Italian opera singer, he fathered Francis William Lowther (1841–1908), who was the father of Claude Lowther MP and Toupie Lowther.[12][13]

He died in his London house at 15 Carlton House Terrace on 4 March 1872, aged 84, and was succeeded in the earldom and to Lowther Castle by his nephew, Henry.[1] On the day he died he waited in his carriage outside a London auction house, while an agent bid on his behalf on some lots of porcelain.[14] Of an estate valued at £700,000 (without the entailed land), Francis William and Fanny were bequeathed £125,000 each, and Francis's son £25,000.[15]

A marble bust of him was sculpted by Edward Bowring Stephens, now in the National Trust collection at Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire.

Collecting

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From 1842 until his death he gathered a remarkable collection of ancient works of art at his enormous country seat, Lowther Castle, composed of more than 100 pieces of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and mostly Roman sculpture, whose selection reflected the spirit of the collections of the ‘Golden Age of Dilettantism’ during the Victorian era.[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2398. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  2. ^ "Lowther, the Hon. William (LWTR805W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Clonmel to Cork County West[usurped]
  4. ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: West Lothian to Widnes[usurped]
  5. ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Dumbarton to Dysart Burghs[usurped]
  6. ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Cornwall to Cynon Valley[usurped]
  7. ^ "No. 18474". The London Gazette. 30 May 1828. p. 1045.
  8. ^ "No. 21296". The London Gazette. 27 February 1852. p. 633.
  9. ^ "Lists of Royal Society Fellows". Retrieved 21 December 2006.
  10. ^ The Life of James Hamilton Stanhope (1788–1825), Mark Guscin, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021, p. 24
  11. ^ Collins, 5-6
  12. ^ Thomas, Seccombe. "Lowther, William, second earl of Lonsdale (1787–1872), politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17114. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  13. ^ Grieves, Keith. "Lowther, Claude William Henry (1870–1929), politician and art connoisseur". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39465. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  14. ^ Collins, 267
  15. ^ Collins, 267-268
  16. ^ Fadda, Salvatore (2019). "The dismembered collection of antiquities of Lowther Castle". Journal of the History of Collections. 31 (2): 319–331. doi:10.1093/jhc/fhy050.
  • Collins, Roger, Charles Meryon: A Life, 1999, Garton & Company, ISBN 0906030358, 9780906030356
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cockermouth
1808–1813
With: Sir James Graham, Bt 1808–1812
Sir John Lowther, Bt 1812
Augustus Foster 1812–1813 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Westmorland
1813–1831
With: Hon. Henry Lowther 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Dunwich
1832
With: Frederick Barne 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for West Cumberland
1832–1833
With: Edward Stanley 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Westmorland
1832–1841
With: Hon. Henry Lowther 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by First Commissioner of Woods and Forests
1828–1830 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Treasurer of the Navy
1834–1835 		Succeeded by
Vice-President of the Board of Trade
1834–1835 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Postmaster General
1841–1845 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord President of the Council
1852 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland and Westmorland
1844–1868 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Earl of Lonsdale
1844–1872 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Baron Lowther
(writ of acceleration)
1841–1872 		Succeeded by
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