Author: Lower, Richard
Biography:
LOWER, Richard (1782-1865: ODNB)
A long, detailed GM obituary is the primary source for all later biographies of Lower. He was the son of Sarah (Reed) Lower and her husband John Lower, a bargeman successful enough in his line of work to raise “a numerous family” (GM) and to give Richard, who was not suited to physical labour, a basic education good enough to equip him to earn his living as a schoolmaster and surveyor. He was born at Alfriston, Sussex, on 10 Sept. 1782 and baptised on 8 Oct. He married Mary Oxley at Berwick, Sussex, on 9 Apr. 1803, and they settled at Chiddingly where he taught school; they went on to have at least fifteen children, of whom five died in infancy or early childhood. Lower was a compulsive writer of verses, apparently all his life, but published only three substantial works: Tom Cladpole’s Journey to Lunnon (1831), in Sussex dialect, with a slightly expanded version c. 1844; an anti-slavery work, Jan Cladpole’s Trip to Merricur (1844); and a final collection, Stray Leaves from an Old Tree (1862). Tom Cladpole’s Journey sold very well locally—20,00 copies or more according to GM, in several editions—mainly to local cottagers. In the 1851 census he was recorded living in Chiddingly with his wife and a grandchild. His wife Mary died in 1854 and in 1861 the household consisted of Lower, identified as a “Land Surveyor” and “Collector of Rents,” together with a granddaughter who was keeping house, and two younger grandchildren. He died at Tonbridge, Kent, at the home of his third son, Joseph, on 29 Sept. 1865. (ODNB 29 Jan. 2024; ancestry.com 29 Jan. 2024; findmypast.com 29 Jan. 2024; GM Dec. 1865, 792; John Russell Smith, A Bibliographical List of the Works . . . illustrating the Provincial Dialects of England [1839], 19) HJ