Author: Lowth, Robert
Biography:
LOWTH, Robert (c. 1762-1822: ancestry.com)
This Robert Lowth is not to be confused with his father, the Robert Lowth (1710-87) who was Bishop of London and author of the Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1753)--some of whose Latin verses do appear in translation in this bibliography but who is not separately noticed as a writer in English (see the headnote to Vida for notes about the translator). His mother was an heiress, Mary Jackson, who had married his father in 1752; they had seven children of whom only two, a son and a daughter, grew to maturity. Robert was baptised at Durham Cathedral on 26 Mar. 1762. He matriculated at Christ Church Oxford in 1779 (BA 1783, MA 1786) and was ordained deacon (1785) and priest (1786). From 1786 to 1790 he was rector of Willingale Spain and vicar of Halstead, both in Essex. Upon the death of his father in 1787 he published short but useful Memoirs (1787) of the latter’s “admirable writings and exemplary life” (1). From 1789 until his own death he was a prebendary of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, and in the year of his death prebendary also of Chichester. On 20 Jan. 1794 he married Frances (Fanny) Harington (1774-1860) at Thruxton, Hampshire. They settled at Hinton Ampner, Hampshire, and had 13 children, all of whom appear to have survived their father. Lowth’s enthusiasm for field sports is apparent in his only known poetical work, Billesdon Coplow; a copy in ms with holograph corrrections by the author is held by the National Art Library at the V&A. He also published at least two sermons. About 1818 the family moved to Chiswick, where the youngest son was born and where Lowth died in Aug. 1822, with burial on Aug. 26. His wife survived him by almost 40 years and was buried at the West Hill cemetery, Winchester, Hampshire, on 26 Jan. 1860. (ancestry.com 30 Jan. 2024; findmypast.com 30 Jan. 2024; “Lowth, Robert [father]” ODNB 30 Jan. 2024; Alumni Oxonieses; CCEd 30 Jan. 2024; Robert Lowth, Memoirs [1787]; WorldCat)