LOWTHER, Geoffrey

Lowther came from an old and distinguished family with an impressive record of parliamentary service for Cumberland and Westmorland, dating back to the beginning of the fourteenth century. His eldest brother Robert sat in at least seven Parliaments between 1391 and 1417; and their sibling, William, did so twice. These two occupied a dominant position in the north-west for most of the first decade of the fifteenth century, all but monopolizing the principal offices of local government in their region.11 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 639-43. Geoffrey’s early career also focused on the north-west. In 1395, along with his neighbour and distant kinsman, Geoffrey Tilliol, he was granted by Richard II the keepership of the ferry across the Solway, a grant perhaps arising from the good offices of Tilliol’s brother, Sir Peter*, an influential member of the royal household. Shortly after Henry of Bolingbroke seized the throne Lowther obtained a forestership in the royal forest of Inglewood, of which his brother Robert was perhaps still lieutenant, only to surrender the office on 5 Mar. 1401. Evidently, he had decided to make his career in the south of England. A fortnight later he received the custody of a Scottish clerk, then a prisoner in the Tower of London.12 CCR, 1399-1402, p. 259. Geoffrey continued to be styled ‘of Cumberland’, as on his three appearances in the Exchequer in 1406 as a mainpernor on behalf of his brothers,13 CFR, xiii. 31, 51, 56. but henceforth he spent most of his time in London and Kent. It seems certain that he was the ‘Lowther’ listed among those admitted to Lincoln’s Inn at some point in the next few years. Nevertheless, while training in the law might well have proved useful, his was not to be the typical career of a professional lawyer.

An important factor prompting Lowther to move south was his service to Thomas Neville, Lord Furnival. The resignation of his forestership in March 1401 coincided with his appearance in the Exchequer as surety for that lord, and his description as ‘of Yorkshire’ suggests that he was a member of Furnival’s household. The association was born of the Lowthers longstanding connexion with the great northern family of Neville, for Geoffrey’s brother Sir Robert was a trustee of the estates in Cumberland of Furnival’s elder brother, Ralph, earl of Westmorland, and was to be made an executor of the earl’s will.14 CFR, xii. 120; Durham Wills and Inventories (Surtees Soc. ii), 73. While Furnival was treasurer of England (from 1404 until his death in 1407), his retainers also found favour with Henry IV, and on 11 Aug. 1405 Lowther received royal grant an annuity of 19 marks from the lordship of Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire, and this was followed by appointment as bailiff of the duchy of Lancaster wapentake of Staincross. In December 1406 he was among a group of feoffees of the manor of Painswick, Gloucestershire, probably in the interest of his lord’s son-in-law and stepson, Sir John Talbot (who, in right of his wife, was to succeed to Furnival’s title just a few months later).15 CPR, 1405-8, pp. 45, 139. When, on 12 Mar. 1407, Furnival drew up his will he named Lowther as one of his executors, leaving him a bequest of 16 oxen, a flock of 480 sheep and 18 pieces of silver plate – although this may have proved to be inadequate compensation for the difficult task of executing the will, which involved Lowther in lengthy litigation.16 Test. Ebor. iii. (Surtees Soc. xlv), 40-43; CCR, 1409-13, p. 200; CPR, 1408-13, p. 127; E159/206, brevia, Mich. rot. 25. In July 1415 he and his co-executor, Robert Pudsay, took out pardons, and when Pudsay himself was dying, five years later, he named Lowther as executor of his own will: C67/37, m. 32; Surtees Soc. cxvi. 28.

After Henry V acceded to the throne Lowther successfully petitioned for a confirmation of his annuity and duchy office, and on 18 June 1414 he received a new annuity, of the larger sum of 25 marks, from the issues of Staincross.17 CCR, 1413-19, p. 206; DL42/18, f. 114. Yet instead of entering the new King’s household, he began an association with Henry’s brother, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, which in the event lasted for over 25 years. He was already an important member of Gloucester’s affinity by June 1415. On the eve of his departure to Normandy on the King’s great expedition, Duke Humphrey received licence to place certain of his estates in the hands of feoffees, who included Lowther alongside the bishops of Winchester and Durham, the earl of Dorset, Sir John Tiptoft† and another important servant of the duke, Sir William Beauchamp†.18 CPR, 1413-16, p. 330. The following month Lowther mustered with Gloucester’s retinue at Southampton, bringing with him a personal following of six men-at-arms and 17 archers, but he appears to have fallen ill at the siege of Harfleur and thus probably missed the battle of Agincourt.19 E101/44/30 (1); 45/13. Yet this was of little consequence, for Gloucester valued him more for his qualities as an administrator than a soldier.

Within two years of Duke Humphrey’s appointment as warden of the Cinque Ports and constable of Dover castle in November 1415, he promoted Lowther to be his lieutenant, an important office which he was to fill until late in the 1430s. He continued to act in a legal capacity for the duke, being named as a feoffee again for lands in Pembrokeshire and on the Isle of Wight in July 1418,20 CPR, 1416-22, p. 129. but for the most part he was kept busy with the considerable work of his office at Dover. There, as well as organizing the defences of the town and castle, he was responsible for supervising the warden’s courts of admiralty and Shepway, and a good deal of his time was also taken by more general administrative tasks arising from appointments to royal commissions. In Henry V’s reign several of these concerned the King’s affairs across the Channel, requiring Lowther to commandeer vessels and muster forces before their embarkation. He was also entrusted with diplomatic matters: on 26 Sept. 1418, along with John Darell*, then sheriff of Kent, he was sent to communicate with Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick and captain of Calais, regarding the truce with the duke of Burgundy.21 E403/637, m. 14. It was probably in his capacity as lieutenant of Dover castle that Lowther attended the coronation of Katherine of Valois on 24 Feb. 1421, wearing a scarlet livery robe issued by the great wardrobe.22 E101/407/4. In May 1422 he was paid £21 for the costs of shipping victuals from Winchelsea to the King’s army in France, and later that year he was involved in the restoration of cargoes belonging to certain Flemish and Italian merchants which had been taken at sea by pirates operating out of Dartmouth and had found their way to Sandwich. At that port he was one of the collectors of customs in the last three years of the reign.23 E403/655, m. 3; CFR, xiv. 291-2.

By then, owing to his position as Gloucester’s lieutenant warden of the Cinque Ports, Lowther had emerged as a man of great importance within Kent, well qualified for election to Parliament. He had been appointed a j.p. in the county and had developed strong relationships with other members of the county elite. The most significant of these was the ones he had established with other northerners who had shared his early links with the Nevilles, chief among them John Darell, who had been Lord Furnival’s under treasurer in the Exchequer and was to be named, with Lowther’s brother, as an executor of the earl of Westmorland,24 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 752-3. and Richard Clitheroe†, another of Furnival’s servants, who had moved to Kent from Lancashire and excelled as an admiral of the fleets in the Channel and victualler of Calais. Both Lowther and Darell were named as Clitheroe’s executors in 1420.25 The execution of Clitheroe’s will proved troublesome, long involving our MP in litigation in the court of the common pleas: CP40/658, rot. 492d; 659, rot. 207d; 663, rot. 149; 718, rot. 410; 724, rot. 357d; Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, pp. 161, 169.

The premature death of Henry V in August 1422, leaving as his heir a mere infant aged nine months, presented his brothers the dukes of Bedford and Gloucester with the problem of establishing governments in France and England during a prolonged minority. While Bedford remained in France as Regent, Gloucester’s role at home needed to be defined, and more particularly a Parliament had to be summoned to decide the power and title to be accorded to whichever of the royal uncles was to assume authority until the King came of age. It is not surprising that Gloucester’s lieutenant warden, Lowther, was elected one of the knights of the shire for Kent in the Commons summoned to meet on 9 Nov. The circumstances of his election are obscure, but his friend, John Darell, made the return as sheriff, and the fact that the indenture was attested by only a dozen men suggests that it was not contested.26 C219/13/1; PROME, x. 2-11, 61. Despite his hopes of being recognized as regent of England, in the Parliament Gloucester was forced to accept a lesser role as Protector and membership of a council accorded corporate authority. For a while he regularly attended council meetings, and was probably directly responsible for Lowther’s appointment on the following 4 Mar., along with another ducal servant, John Tyrell*, to a commission sent to the east marches of Scotland to investigate justice dispensed by the earl of Northumberland as warden. Furthermore, a few days earlier Lowther had been given the responsible positions as receiver- and attorney-general of those parts of the duchy of Lancaster not enfeoffed for the performance of Henry V’s will. As such he served on the duchy council and was to be periodically appointed as one of the assize judges in the duchy’s possessions in Wales.27 Clearly, however, Lowther was unable to give the duchy the attention it demanded, and from the mid 1430s, and probably before, his duties as receiver-general were exercised by a deputy: R. Somerville, Duchy, i. 36-37. This involvement in the administration of the duchy appears to have been profitable: for example, he received as a reward from Katherine of Valois 20s. for every £100 he paid of her annuity charged on the duchy’s revenues.28 A.R. Myers, Crown, Household and Parl. 200.

Lowther was not to be elected to the Commons again for three years, but his friendship with Darell led to him attesting Darell’s election to the Parliament of 1425,29 C219/13/3. and early in the following year he himself was returned to the assembly summoned to meet at Leicester on 18 Feb. 1426. This, the so-called ‘Parliament of Bats’, presided over by the duke of Bedford, saw an attempt to bring to an end the disruptive quarrel between Duke Humphrey and Bishop Beaufort over the exercise of royal authority. Gloucester clearly needed supporters in the Commons, among them his lieutenant Lowther, although there is no evidence to show interference in the election in Kent to achieve that end. Whatever the interests of his lord, Lowther may have had a family concern in the proceedings. He was joined in the Commons by his nephew Hugh, sitting for Cumberland, and they may have been tasked by Hugh’s father, Sir Robert Lowther, in furthering a petition presented to the Lower House for relief from demands made by the Exchequer against Sir Robert and the other executors of the earl of Westmorland, who had died in the previous year.30 RP, iv. 469 (cf. PROME, x. 315). In April 1432 Lowther was elected to his third and final Parliament along with William Haute*, another servant of the duke of Gloucester. The list of attestors was headed by Lowther’s old friend, John Darell, and included other associates such as John Greenford*, who had stood surety for Lowther at the Exchequer four years earlier, and was to serve under him as steward of Dover castle. Gloucester’s influence in the parliamentary politics of Kent may again be suspected; the Parliament that assembled at Westminster in May witnessed another trial of strength between Duke Humphrey and Cardinal Beaufort. Lowther may also have contributed to the formulation of the charges levelled by Gloucester at Cardinal Beaufort relating to the seizure of the cardinal’s treasure which he intended, illegally, to ship to Calais. Indeed, as Gloucester’s deputy warden of the Cinque Ports, it may have been Lowther who actually made the seizure.31 C219/14/3; CFR, xv. 210; R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 41-42; G.L. Harriss, Cardinal Beaufort, 215-21.

A measure of Lowther’s importance is his summons in April 1434 to the great council which met to discuss Gloucester’s attack on the conduct of the war in France by his brother, the duke of Bedford. Both Gloucester’s highly critical memorandum, in which he had offered to lead an army to France himself, and Bedford’s reply were taken by the protagonists to be personal slights to their honour, and the composition of the great council reflected the regime’s desire to lessen tensions. As well as lords spiritual and temporal, it included men aligned with the two dukes: thus Lowther was joined by fellow Gloucester servants, such as William Haute and John Tyrell, and Bedford’s men were represented by Lewis John*, Richard Buckland* and Richard Wydeville*. Ultimately, however, the proceedings ended in a rebuff for Duke Humphrey. On 5 May those present petitioned the King stating that they had rejected Gloucester’s offer to lead an army to France only because of the impossibility of raising the £48,000-£50,000 they had calculated it would cost. Instead they asked that the ‘people of your land be called in forme accustumed for þis matere’ (that is, that a Parliament be summoned) and that they ‘be not noted of eny default of non execucion’ of Gloucester’s offer.32 PPC, iv. 210-16; Harriss, 236-7. When, in February 1436, Lowther was asked to advance a loan of 100 marks for the army to be sent to France, it was under the command of the duke of York.33 PPC, iv. 325.

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1434 Lowther had headed the list of men of Kent who subscribed to the oath not to maintain peace-breakers, and he long continued to be active in Kentish affairs.34 CPR, 1429-36, p. 388. As lieutenant warden, his duties were burdensome. As well as holding the court of admiralty, usually at New Romney, he was also responsible for making the returns of parliamentary elections in the Cinque Ports,35 C219/12/2; 13/4, 5; 14/1-5; 15/1. and his friendship was eagerly sought by the Portsmen to promote their interests. In 1430-1, for example, New Romney presented him with a gift of fish, while every year Dover made him a present of 12 capons. He was also called upon to arbitrate in their disputes, most notably in 1436 when he was one of the arbiters in the quarrel between Dover and its member-port of Faversham.36 Dover Chs., ed. Statham, 185; Add. 21965, ff. 79v, 126, 137, 147v, 158v; E. Kent Archs., New Romney recs., assmt. bk. 1384-1446, NR/FAc 2, f. 112. The private affairs of individual Portsmen were drawn to his attention, as in the long delayed fulfilment of the will of John Salerne†.37 Cott. Julius B IV, ff. 46-47; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 287-8. The city of Canterbury was another focus of Lowther’s activities in Kent. In 1426 he had been associated with William Benet* and other citizens as a feoffee of the manor of Snargate, and in April 1428, along with John Martin, j.c.p., he acted as an arbiter in a dispute between the city and the prior of Christ Church, a sequel to the task given to him and Darell by Archbishop Chichele of determining the boundaries of the ‘kynges meed’ and the ‘maltdych’ which had been in contention between the two institutions.38 Canterbury Cath. Archs., Canterbury city recs., burghmote reg. 1298-1503, CCA-CC-O/A/1, ff. 42v-43; chamberlains’ accts. 1393-1445, CCA-CC-F/A/1, f. 311v; Dean and Chapter mss, CCA-DCc-ChAnt/C/1229-30. Lowther held property in St. Paul’s parish within the city, and beyond the walls he acquired before 1431 the manor-house in St. Martin’s parish known as ‘Le Moot’. He was assessed to pay 6s. 8d on his goods there towards the parliamentary subsidy, from which, as a freeman of the Cinque Ports, he was exempt.39 E179/124/297, rot. 9d; 227/106; CP40/700, rot. 33. Not all Lowther’s connexions with the city elite were legitimate, however: he allegedly maintained Richard Colbrond, one of the jurats, in a vexatious suit against another local man.40 C1/72/53. Elsewhere, together with Darell, back in 1427 he had received from the Crown custody of the manor of St. Laurence on the Isle of Thanet, during the minority of John Wykes, and later acted as feoffee for another Thanet man, John Salisbury.41 CFR, xv. 160; CP40/775, rot. 646. He and Darell also showed an interest in Rochester bridge, initially by completing the large legacy to the bridge left by Richard Clitheroe, and as late as 1435-6 the wardens twice rode to Canterbury to confer with the two of them about it.42 Rochester Bridge Trust, wardens’ accts. 1435-6, F 1/40.

In the late 1430s the pace of Lowther’s activities slowed down, perhaps as a consequence of ill-health, and indeed he must have been quite old by this date. In December 1437, after Henry VI attained his majority, he was required to surrender his offices of receiver- and attorney-general of the duchy of Lancaster. Although he remained active on ad hoc commissions in Kent, and appears to have continued to attend sessions of the peace regularly until his death,43 Somerville, 398; DL42/18, f. 99; CPR, 1436-41, p. 315; 1441-6, p. 199; E159/216, recorda, Easter rot. 3; E101/567/3/1-2. by April 1440 he had been replaced at Dover by Gloucester’s father-in-law, Sir Reynold Cobham,44 M. Mercer, ‘Kent and National Politics’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1995), 27; E179/235/2, rot. 2. and around the same time he also surrendered in interest in the wapentake of Staincross.45 DL42/18, f. 114.

The date of Lowther’s death is not known but a writ of diem clausit extremum was sent to the escheator of Kent on 1 July 1445,46 CFR, xvii. 303. and later that year the wardens of Rochester bridge rode to Canterbury to discuss with his executors a bequest he had made to the bridge.47 Rochester Bridge wardens’ accts. 1445-6, F 1/45. Lowther, who appears to have died childless, left his manors of ‘Le Moot’, Garrington and Well in Kent to feoffees, including the parson of the church in Dover castle, with instructions to deliver them to his nephew, Robert, in tail with successive remainders to the latter’s brothers, Geoffrey, William and Thomas. This, the feoffees refused to do, resulting in litigation in the court of Chancery.48 C1/16/462; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 170. The nephews were the four youngest sons of the MP’s elder brother, Sir Robert.49 Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. n.s. xvi. 160-2. His relations with his nephews had always been close. The eldest, Hugh, and another of the siblings, Richard (d.1430), had served alongside him on the campaign of 1415, and in May 1438 his office of keeper of the ferry over the Solway had been re-granted to him in survivorship with William.50 CPR, 1436-41, p. 192; E101/45/13. One of the nephews is probably to be identified with the Thomas Lowther who was admitted to the freedom of Dover in 1429-30: Add. 21965, f. 158. The Geoffrey Lowther who was buried at Seabergham, Cumb., was probably the MP’s nephew rather than he himself, contrary to the suggestion by J.S. Roskell, Commons of 1422, p. 203.