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 