Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet, of Whitehaven


Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet FRS was an English gentleman and landowner at Whitehaven.
Lowther was born at Whitehaven, in the parish of St Bees, Cumberland, the son of Sir Christopher Lowther, 1st Baronet, and his wife, Frances Lancaster, daughter of Christopher Lancaster of Stockbridge, Westmoreland. He was educated at Ilkley, Yorkshire and Balliol College, Oxford. He served as Member of Parliament for Cumberland from 1665 to 1701, and as a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty from 1689 to 1696.

Development of Whitehaven

Lowther owned large coal estates near Whitehaven, and worked to develop the mines and the port. He spent over £11,000 in expanding Lowther holdings in the Whitehaven area, concentrating on the acquisition of coal-bearing land, of land which would allow his pits unhampered access to Whitehaven harbour, and land which would hinder the working of others' pits. This, in turn, allowed him to improve the drainage of his pits, unworried by the thought that he was also draining his neighbours'.
He secured the grant of the right to hold a market and a fair to Whitehaven, and its recognition as a separate customs 'member-port' responsible for the Solway coast from Ravenglass to Ellenfoot. He also secured, recognition of his title to the foreshore of the manor of St. Bees, containing 'houses lands staythes & salt pans at Whitehaven' valued at £400 a year.
He oversaw the rise of Whitehaven from a small fishing village to a planned town three times the size of Carlisle. At his death the 'port of Whitehaven' had 77 registered vessels, totaling about four thousand tons, and was exporting over 35,000 tons of coal a year.

Family

Lowther had married Jane Leigh, a ward of his uncle Sir John Lowther of Lowther of Elizabeth Lowther. Lowther and Jane had three children:
His elder son, Christopher, had a drink problem, and – when drunk – other problems: "when sober he is sometimes passable enough, but not without discovering by fits notions very extravagant. When drunk no man in Bedlam more wild or more dangerous. The reflections he pretends to make afterwards, but if either dice or strong drink come in his way, he never yet resisted the temptation." complained Lowther, who disinherited him with an allowance of £2 a week.
Lowther died at Whitehaven and was buried at St Bees. He left the family estates to his younger son, James, who although noted in 1688 to have 'contracted a great liking for strong drink than is usual in those of his age' was by 1701 declaring himself to be a water-drinker for the sake of his health.