Katherine Lowther

Katherine Lowther, Viscountess Lonsdale (originally Katherine Thynne ; born September 21, 1653 in Caus Castle , Shropshire , † January 7, 1713 in London ) was an English noblewoman. After the death of her husband, she took over with his political influence in North West England.

Origin and marriage to John Lowther

Katherine Lowther came from the English Thynne family . She was a daughter of Sir Henry Thynne, 1st Baronet and of Mary Coventry, a daughter of Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry . On December 3, 1674, she married John Lowther , the eldest son of Colonel John Lowther and Elizabeth Bellingham. Her husband belonged to an influential north-west English family and inherited the title of 2nd Baronet , of Lowther in the County of Westmorland on November 30, 1675 when his grandfather died . In the next few years Katherine lived with her husband in London, where several of their children were born, after 1680 she lived mostly in Lowther. After the birth of a son in 1694, Katherine fell seriously ill in the puerperium , then took a cure in Bath and stayed in London until her health was restored. Her husband, who was Knight of the Shire for Westmorland in the House of Commons for many years and Lord High Treasurer for several months in 1690 , resigned his offices as Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland and Westmorland and as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household in 1694 . He was raised to Viscount Lonsdale on May 28, 1696 and thus a member of the House of Lords . Katherine now held the courtesy title Viscountess Lonsdale . Her husband became Lord Keeper of the Seal in 1699 , but died on July 10, 1700.

Representative of her husband's family

The implementation of her husband's will caused difficulties for Lady Lonsdale because her sons were still minors. She took over the administration of her husband's possessions , asking her brother Lord Weymouth and Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet († 1706), a cousin of her husband, for advice. Her brother Lord Weymouth advised her to remain neutral in the upcoming Westmorland general election in early 1701, but she soon realized that this was against the political interests of the Lowthers. Her husband had been assigned to the Whigs , and she subsequently rejected the political claims of Sir Christopher Musgrave, 4th Baronet , who was running as the Tories' candidate for Westmorland. With the assistance of Sir John Lowther and Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle , she succeeded in getting Sir Richard Sandford , a Whigs candidate, elected to Westmorland in the December 1701 election. Even if she kept in contact with her brother Lord Weymouth, who was an open Tory, Lady Lonsdale remained a supporter of the Whigs throughout her life. After the death of Sir John Lowther, she supported his son James Lowther in the general elections in 1708 and 1710, in which he was elected MP for Cumberland.

Family and offspring

She and her husband had five sons, two of whom died as children, and nine daughters, four of whom she survived, including:

• Mary Lowther († 1706) ⚭ Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet;
• Elizabeth Lowther († 1764) ⚭ Sir William Ramsden, 2nd Baronet;
• Jane Lowther († 1752);
• Margaret Lowther ⚭ Sir Joseph Pennington, 2nd Baronet;
• Barbara Lowther († 1716) ⚭ Thomas Howard;
• Richard Lowther, 2nd Viscount Lonsdale (1694-1713);
• Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale (1694-1751);
• Anthony Lowther († 1741).

In 1705 the family experienced a crisis when their daughter Barbara secretly married the Catholic Thomas Howard of Corby Castle . This required a series of difficult negotiations over the ownership of the bride and her children, which were not completed until September 1706. Lady Lonsdale was buried in Lowther on January 28, 1713 with great public sympathy. In her will, she considered her three sons, three daughters and Sir John Wentworth, the husband of her late daughter Mary, but not her daughter Barbara.

literature

• Stuart Handley: Lowther, Katherine, Viscountess Lonsdale (1653-1713). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Web links

• Katherine Thynne on thepeerage.com , accessed September 29, 2015.