John Adam Cramb ‎

“ It was here that Thomas Lowndes passed his childhood (Letter to the admiralty, 6 July 1746) . Nothing more is known of his life—unless the residence in France and Holland, to which he alludes in the same letter, be referred to this period—until 1725. On 27 Sept. of that year he received from the lords proprietors the patent of provost-marshal of South Carolina, along with a grant of the four baronies necessary, according to Locke's ‘Constitutions,’ to the dignity of landgrave. ”

“ A description by Lowndes of the ceremony of Harley's installation as lord high treasurer, on 1 June 1711, is preserved in the treasury minute-book (printed in Cal. State Papers, Treas. Ser., vol. iv. Pref. pp. vii–viii) . In 1717, on the renewal of the land tax, Gay addressed to him some trivial verses of commonplace irony, and, enclosing them in a letter to Pope, drew from the latter the comment: ‘That gentleman [Lowndes] is lately become an inoffensive person to me too’—by the sale of his father's estate in the preceding year ”

“ His father was Charles Maynwaring, eldest son of Sir Arthur, and his mother was the daughter of Charles Cholmley of Vale Royal, Cheshire. When a boy he attended the grammar school, Shrewsbury, was sent at fifteen to Christ Church, Oxford (1683) , and in 1687 entered as a student at the Inner Temple. He took the losing side at the revolution, and during a long stay with his uncle, Sir Francis Cholmley, a cavalier who went to prison rather than acknowledge William, his Stuart sympathies were encouraged and strengthened. ”

“ He gained a speedy ascendency over the board, and a reputation, even among enemies, for honesty and high principle. Oldmixon tells a pleasant story of the discomfiture of a candidate who some days preceding the election to a vacant post left fifty sovereigns at Maynwaring's lodgings with a letter soliciting his support in exchange. In 1705 Godolphin rewarded his services to the whigs by appointing him auditor of imprests, with an income of 3,000l. a year. Oldmixon seems to refer this appointment to an earlier year, but the first report bearing Maynwaring's signature is dated 19 Oct. ”

“ LOWNDES, WILLIAM THOMAS (d. 1843) , bibliographer, son of William Lowndes, a well-known bookseller in the Strand, London, was born about 1798. His grandfather, also a bookseller, was supposed to be the original of Briggs in Miss Burney's ‘Cecilia.’ In 1820 he began to compile his chief and valuable work, ‘The Bibliographer's Manual,’ the first edition of which, published in four volumes by Pickering, is dated 1 Jan. ”

“ He clung obstinately to this scheme, modifying it again and again, until it was partially adopted two years later. He was occupied about the same period, 1728–30, with other projects for Carolina—the manufacture of potash as a blow at Russian trade; the importation for that purpose of the persecuted Poles; the incorporation of North Carolina with Virginia; the extraction of oil from sesame, ‘which would make the barren pine-lands as valuable as the rice-fields’ (ib. ‘Plantations General,’ 11, M. 1, 3–6; ‘South Carolina,’ 4, C. 71, 93–5, 110) . ”

“ The wide-reaching evils that would have followed the scheme are beyond dispute. m'Culloch brands it as a ‘nefarious project,’ whilst Macaulay credits Lowndes and his immediate followers with merely well-intentioned dulness. ”

“ Oldfield, the grande passion of his life, began some time previously. He wrote a number of prologues for her, but his influence on her style is less certain. On 27 Dec. 1706 he was elected member for the borough of Preston, and continued to represent it until 1710 (Members of Parliament, pt. i. p. 602, pt. ii. pp. 3, 11) . ”

“ S. Car. 4, C. 83; 5, D. 13, 18, 25) . Johnson, writing from Charlestown, 28 Sept. 1732, protested against the board listening for the future to Lowndes's insinuations, a man who ‘by the neglect of the late lords proprietors had made the province his property to the extent of 4,000l. or 5,000l., by no other merit than a consummate assurance’ (ib. 7, E. 72, Clause D.; 5, D. 53, 63; 6, E. 14, 15; 7, E. 94; 5, D. 57) . About 1733 probably he resigned his patent of provost-marshal, and it was not again renewed. ”

“ Parl. 1716, vol. ii. dedication; Swift's Works, ii. 269, xvi. 196; Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, vii. 420; Gay's Works, Dublin, 1770, ii. 83–4; Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. ii. 396, 399, 410, 433 ”