My cousin who lives in France is coming to Liverpool (where I live and he was in practice as a solicitor) to research his family’s arrival here and early business association with some ‘legal’ Lowndes, who may also have been connected with HM Customs, or at least in the Customs House. This was early 19th century.
I am trying to do some advance work for him, having working on my family for years. Is there any chance that you know something of ‘legal’ offshoots in Liverpool of your very well-documented people? They also went into average adjusting, but I am not sure how closely they connect with the solicitors, notaries etc..
Some early names include Charles, Richard, John Dawson, Matthew Dobson. Some may have been Unitarians, of whom there were many in Liverpool in the 1st half, 19thC.
Jan 2006: In partnership with a cousin who has retired to France and visits UK only now and then, I have been exploring some Lowndeses who were active in Liverpool (my home and his before retirement) in the 18th and 19th centuries. We have explored your website and material at Preston,Chester and Liverpool Record Offices. His purpose is to gather material for a history of his family’s law practice in Liverpool which feature a Lowndes in its earliest days, but this has led us into curiosity about the widespread and successful family.
We are especially interested in Charles L. of Bostock Hall who went to Bladensburg, had a plot of land in 1742 and married Elizabeth Tasker in 1747, and is described as a prominent citizen and ‘the Maryland progenitor’…
We cannot find any evidence of when he left Cheshire and wonder if you can suggest any way of arriving at the date and perhaps the reason for settling in Maryland. Were there family links already? Did he set out from Liverpool?
Our main interests are in the group of Ls who were merchants, brokers, lawyers, a pilots’ clerk, & customs officials in Liverpool, appearing in directories, rolls of freemen etc. There are traces in correspondence involving the (locally?) famous William Roscoe, who seems to have been a guardian of three young men. We are convinced they link with the family of Richard L. of Bostock / Overton, but need some more detail and possibly help in sorting out those who bore the same Christian names. We have found some Unitarian baptisms, but feel sure there must be others lurking unseen.
If anyone can help Richard, please comment here [Mike]
Lowndes family history 
Greetings again. I am Richard Daglish cousin working with him on an account of the Liverpool Lowndes. Your comments are very helpful..Christopher was baptised 19/06/1713 the 9th child and 5th son of Richard and Margaret. By the time he was 12 he had one more sister and 3 more brothers. Thus the household had 2 parents 13 children the eldest 27 and the youngest a few months. With suitable indoor and outdoor staff, nannies, tutors, governesses and so on the house must have been full of life and movement. I think that the first 3 boys lived their lives in the house or nearby but Charles Edward Thomas and Francis went to Liverpool. Edward became a freeman in 1739 his 21st year and in 1744 became part owner of a slaver with Christopher and William Whalley. Edward was to have further ownerships. Charles became “a famous merchant in Water Street” and was occasionally a part owner of slave ships with Edward and others. Thomas became a merchant in cotton and no doubt other goods. Francis became a Captain, slave ship owner and Privateer. I think but cannot prove that the Lowndes boys knew the Trafford family from Cheshire days. The Traffords were long established there and in Staffordshire and it is possible that Edward and Henry Trafford encouraged Charles and his brothers to go to Liverpool. IF they went there when they were 21 then Charles arrived in 1732, Christopher in 1734 Edward in 1739 Thomas in 1741 and Francis in 1745. I have no evidence to support this and absolutely nothing to show that Christopher went to Liverpool at all. However it has to be a possibility that he spent some time there learning from his brothers and the Traffords about the tobacco sugar and slave trades thus equipping himself to go to Maryland in or before 1738. I have noted that under Maryland State Archive ref MAS SC 4885 there are Lowndes family papers 1726 to 1984 and wonder if they contain anything of interest between 1726 and 1738. Would you be able to look I wonder? If of interest I could send you direct our list of ships in which the Lowndeses had an interest, and later I could send a more copious account of the brothers activities. If so please e-mail your address to me at james.bateson@orange.fr. Happy Christmas to you all James Bateson
Greetings. Your comment very helpful. I have quite a lot of information that might be of interest and would send to you direct if you would kindly send me your e-mail address. Mine is james.bateson @orange.fr Happy Christmas and Thanks James
Greetings – I have been researching Christopher Lowndes for the past few months as part of a project to create a Cultural Landscape Report for Bostwick (a corruption of the originally named Bostock House, i.e., named after the ancestral home in Cheshire), which is located on eight acres on the Eastern Branch of the Potomac River, in Bladensburg, Maryland.
I have found this site very helpful for filling in some of the genealogical connections to the Lowndes line in Cheshire and elsewhere.
Like you, I am very interested to learn of any information regarding Christopher’s departure for Maryland.
I have extensive records of Christopher Lowndes’s (and his family’s) activities in Bladensburg, where he was at various times a Commissioner, Postmaster, Justice, and Judge of the Orphan’s Court. His financial success was based largely on the importation of slaves into Maryland, made possible by his Liverpool connections, where his business partners (including his brother, Edward) were similarly engaged. He also imported and sold indentured servants, textiles, West India goods, and other items which he sold in a store that he owned in Bladensburg. In addition, he was a shipbuilder on Bladensburg’s waterfront, and operated a ropewalk that supplied rope to the American Navy during the American Revolution. When he died, he left a very large estate – including several dozen slaves – to his children, most of whom had married into wealthy Maryland families.
The first record of Christopher Lowndes’ presence in Maryland is in July 1738, when he is also recorded as working for Henry and Edward Trafford, Liverpool merchants who would later become mayors of that city. In one of his first land purchases in the Bladensburg area, he is referred to as “Mariner,” and in another deed as “Captain,” which makes me wonder about the exact nature of his connection to Liverpool’s shipping industry, and in particular, whether and how he may have participated in a slaving voyage. I have looked at several early Liverpool histories and directories but have not been able to shed light on this matter. One of his partners, William Whalley, and his brother, Edward Lowndes, are mentioned, but so far I have not been able to trace Christopher, primarily because I have not been able to put my hands on records that predate his departure for Maryland. If you have further information, I would be most grateful.
Best wishes,
Kees de Mooy
Chestertown, Md.
In this piece on Lowndes and Liverpool I have put Charles, but should have put Christopher. I’m sorry if this has confused anyone, but the rest stands and we are still interested in this line of research.