GEOGRAPHY

I no longer keep this page up to date but the most established mentions of Lowndes around the workd should be here.

There’s a Lowndes Street, Lowndes Place , and a Lowndes Square in West London (near Victoria). Oh, and a Hyatt hotel – the Lowndes.
In Chesham, Bucks there is a Lowndes park named after an influential local family,

More streets:
Lowndes Street, Bolton, Lancs.
Lowndes Way, Preston, PR1
Lowndes Street, Stockport, SK2
Lowndes Lane, Stockport, SK2
Lowndes Close, Stockport, SK2
Lowndes Road, Stourbridge, DY8
Lowndes Grove, Milton Keynes, MK5
Lowndes Drive, Huntingdon, PE17
Lowndes Avenue, Chesham, HP5
(there is also a Lowndes Park here).
Lowndes Close, Newport, NP1
Lowndes Park, Driffield, Y0

There are three Counties in the US called Lowndes County:

The early history of Lowndes County, Georgia, is online.
There is a Lake Lowndes in Columbus, Mississippi.
There is a town, Lowndes, in Missouri and a Lowndesboro in Alabama.
There is a Lowndes Road in Orlando, Fla., named after the father of John Lowndes (see below).

Further US placename information can be found here.

This information leads me to believe that several Lowndeses were among the pioneering British that colonised parts of the US. As you will see, a similar story can be told in Australia. It would not suprise me if I was related to these people, given the humble background of my own family. Further evidence has it that at least two groups achieved early success in the American colonies, a group in South Carolina and a group in Maryland, both of whom emigrated in the 1600s.

There was a warship, the USS Lowndes

COMMERCIAL

Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in Belgravia, London.

Eaton-Lowndes publications (reference – wealth information).

Harrington-Lowndes estate agents, London.

Lowndes Investigations Insurance Investigatiors in the USA, run by Tim Lowndes.

Butler, Macon, Williams, Pantele & Lowndes, P.C, solicitors.

Lowndes Jordan business law firm in New Zealand.

Peter R Lowndes & Associates Dentists in Birmingham.

– Has a son, Ben Lowndes(benATlowndes.net).
Lowndes and Sons – Rio, Brazil.

There was a statue to a Lowndes in Charleston, SC, (thanks Lee) and the family seems to have been influential there. Apparently its now in a museum.

There was a Lowndes Arms at 37 Chesham Street London SW1, but this closed in the late 1990s.
There is a Lowndes Arms just outside Milton Keynes, Bucks England, in a small village called Whaddon.

Lowndes Arms, Whaddon

There is a Lowndes Grove Plantation in Charleston, SC, USA, with a Guest House.
There was a Lowndes productions, at Pinewood. They produced a film called ‘A funeral in Berlin’
There will be an Lowndes Adamist Space Trading enterprise operating out of Vallossa in the Ruinring (this will not exist until 2412, according to Peter F. Hamilton).

CULTURAL

Major Frederick Lowndes – in a recent play starring Jamie Theakston in the role.
Freddie Lownds in the film ‘Manhunter’.

PERSONAL

This part of the page is now an ARCHIVE as of 2006. There are far too many Lowndeses on the web for me to keep up with!

For recent information, t ry searching things like ZoomInfo and Wikipedia.

How many Lowndeses?

There were 773 Lowndeses in the UK phone directory as of Dec 2000. Given an average of 2.5 people per house, that makes around 1900 people. Add another 10% (80) or so ex-directory numbers (200 people) and I estimate around 2100 Lowndeses in the UK as of 2001. So we are not as rare as some may expect and there are very likely more in the USA and Australia/New Zealand.

Distribution of the Lowndes surname in the UK in 1881 and 1998 – see how we’ve spread… thanks to spatial-literacy.org.

UK

Charly Lowndes Teacher, Henley on Thames.
Chris Lowndes, Popham, Hampshire.
Nobby Lowndes, at the Open Uni, where I used to work (since retired).
Dr. Brenda Lowndes at Liverpool University.
Dr. Ian Lowndes. Nottingham.
Noel Lowndes – Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Noel says “I too have a celtic connection as I’m Irish. I believe that the name has existed in Ireland since the plantation of Leinster but has never been common.” Has a son, Conor.
Noel’s sister Deborah deborahATatlantic252.com sent me the following info:
Noel and Deborah have a brother, David, living in Wales, sisters Yvonne and Leonie leonie.c.lowndesATac.com. Their father is George Lowndes, who himself has brothers Tony, Vincent and Austin and two sisters Mary and Rose Lowndes all in County Meath, Ireland.

Emma Lowndes-Stone, an aristocrat in Oxfordshire
John Lowndes john.lowndesATukgateway.net and family (Wendy, Fraser and Elliot and Imogen Fern) live in Slitting Mill, Staffordshire. He runs a battery making company!
Steve Lowndes, Guitarist
There is a Ken Lowndes and family living in Achiltibuie, Scotland.

There’s another Mike Lowndes mlowndesATwestminster.gov.uk! Argh! He works for Westminster City Council in london. His parents emigrated from Hatfield to New Zealand.

Mike Lowndes: There’s a third Mike Lowndes (Argh! Argh!). ‘ I live & work in Newport Pagnell running a small electronics/computing business, and know the Lowndes Arms in Whaddon. As I understood it (but I’m probably wrong) a Lowndes family own(ed) Whaddon Hall for a long time. I’m not related (as far as I know) – my family was originally from North Staffs. ‘ Well, he was right – Whaddon was owned by the Selby-Lowndes family:

William Selby-Lowndes is a solicitor, with interesting connections to the rest of the family (see Letters and the Overton commentary). web

Nathan Lowndes, football player (soccer to you Yanks), Watford United (now in Scotland). web

Gwyneth Lowndes gwynethATbluejean.demon.co.uk is married to Jonathan David William Lowndes in Wales.

Angela Wheeler (nee: Lowndes) is from Coventry. Her dad is John Derek Lowndes, his brothers are Michael (Daughters, Naomi, Deborah, Susan and Son Stuart)and Frederick Alan, (son Cornell and daugher Doris) Fredrick (known as Alan), is in New Zealand.

This list last updates in 2003 – there are a lot more of us online now (2006) so please check the letters page.

North America

Chris Lowndes, Calgary, Alberta, Canada –chrislowndesAThome.com.

Chris has a son Antony, in Melbourne Australia and another, James in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Chris says: “Have tried to trace my “blood” back to England. The closest I get is a James John Lowndes born November 9 1801 in London and died July 22 1846 in Quebec City, Canada. Can anyone help him go further back?
From there the Lowndes branched out predominately to Toronto, Ontario with a branch or two going to both Seattle, Washington and State Collage, Pennsylvania.” Fertile lot!

Colin Lowndes and Dorothea, Canada,

Father of Peter Lowndes (see below). Also has sons Micheal and Colin plus grandson Colin. All originally from Cheshire.

2004 update: We have now a grand-son ( adopted from South Korea) by my son Michael Anthony Lowndes and wife Mary Lowndes. Plus my eldest son has two more daughters Michelle Tiana Lowndes and Julia Marie Lowndes both born in Vancouver Canada.
Our baby from Korea was 12 months old in November.

Jessica Lowndes, starlet .

John Elijah Lowndes, Canada. (see letters)

Erik Lowndes – Online CV of this engineer.

Prof. Herb Lowndes, New Jersey, the States.

Jason Lowndes, Poughkeepsie NY. He says “My Father and Stepmother are Donald and Rebecca Lowndes, successful Business Owners in Brewster, NY, My Grandparents are George and Erma Lowndes, who are retired and reside in Sullivan, Maine. My Brother Don is a liscenced emt and paramedic, working in Westchester, NY. My other brother Michael is at Boston University, in Boston MA.”

John and Julie Lowndes jplATmail.teleport.com of Portland, Oregon are descended from early settlers (late 1600s) in Maryland and have provided me with more stuff about Lowndes in the States, Ta!

Kathleen Lowndes katnsoulATcci-29palms.com lives in Southern California. She is trying to trace her roots.

“Family rumor has it that he (Alexander John Lowndes) was one of Queen Victoria’s guards at Buckingham Palace prior to emigrating..(in 1865) Any way I can verify this fact of approximately 150 years ago?”

Kenneth Lowndes, a political journlist in New Jersey, USA: Lowndes for Congress

L. Lowndes, teacher, Arizona

Liel Lowndes writer, US.

A quilt memorial to Peter Lowndes, Canada, who died of AIDS is here. Colin Lowndes, his father is on the ‘net (see above).
Robert Lowndes, a science fiction writer (for kids) is mentioned here.

Prof Robert Lowndes, Dean of Northeastern University
Terry TEEBEEKNEEATaol.com and Kathy Lowndes own and operate a landscape company in Milton Florida.

“Around the corner There’s Norman and Anne Lowndes, Norms retired, and Anne works for the Sherrifs Dept. They’ve got a son Adrian Lowndes, who works for the county”.

William St.John Lowndeswilliam.lowndesATrocketmail.com of NY City

More recent people (post 2003) on the letters page.

Elsewhere

Ecuador
Alex Lowndes Consultor de Tecnología Unidad de Networking.

– I`m from Quito-Ecuador

The name of my father is Aston Lowndes and his grandfather was from England, but nobody remember his name. Here in Ecuador the Lowndes family have like 20 members (Victor, Edgar, Roberto, Frank, Cesar, Ivan, Aston “my father” ) and in Panama there is just one more member my cousin Steph Lowndes.

Bulgaria

Biljana Dimitrova Lowndes of Sofia, Bulgaria The Australian Connection

Ginny Lowndes, writer.

Angela Lowndes, Perth (see letters)
Anna and Tom Lowndes are students in New South Wales, their sister Lucy lucy.lATxtra.co.nz and mum Chris are Physiotherapists. Their father, Robert Lowndes is an engineer. Good to hear from you, Anna, and Lucy in NZ!
Another family in Adelaide- Thomas and Bessie Lowndes, with children (now grown) Kevin and Jacqueline. They emigrated in 1954 from Cheshire. Surprise … not!
Craig Lowndes– a successful Aussie sports car driver.
Peter Lowndes– east Perth Australia.
Myles McGregor-Lowndes – another aussie.
Peter Lowndes a Mechanical Engineer. Brother is Stuart Lowndes, mother and father are Frances and Neil Lowndes. We are second cousins of Robert Lowndes (above).
Jack Lowndes my long lost brother, apparently!

In fact there seem to be more Lowndes‘s in Oz than back here. Which may say something about our character 8^). My sister Helen recently emigrated to Perth and is now settled in Melbourne…

In New Zealand there are at least two families decended from a common branch:
Cathy Nagle cnagleATigrin.co.nz, daugther of Gordon Lowndes who is married to Jeanette Adrienne Smith:

Gordon has a sister Tracey and brother Ross Lowndes who with his partner Caroline have Savanah & Calib. They are descended from Joseph Lowndes, born in Manchester in 1831 and died in 1902. May have travelled to NZ on a ship called the “Kate Kearney”. Joseph had 3 brothers who all went to NZ and Lucy and Robert Lowndes (NZ) are descended from another of the brothers.

Jeff Lowndes lowndesyATbigpond.com, Australia.

Lowndes also spotted in Brazil, Argentina and Sweden…

Art

Gainsborough painted a Lowndes-Stone – here it is.

Portrait of Elizabeth Tasker Lowndes

Please send corrections and any other Lowndes-related material to mikelATyahoo.co.uk

This page established Oct 1995,
updated 6 April 1999
17 April 2000
12 October 2000
July 2002
Oct 2003
redesign and edit July 2006 – ARCHIVED
Mar 2021 – migrated to WordPress from static pages.