Life

Lower, born at Alfriston

Alfriston

Alfriston is a village and civil parish in the East Sussex district of Wealden, England. The village lies in the valley of the River Cuckmere, about four miles north-east of Seaford and south of the main A27 trunk road and part of the large area of Polegate...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, 19 September 1782, was a son of John Lower, who owned the barge The Good Intent, and was the first person to navigate the little river Cuckmere

River Cuckmere

The River Cuckmere rises near Heathfield in East Sussex, England on the southern slopes of the Weald. The name of the river probably comes from an Old English word meaning fast-flowing, since it descends over 100 m in its initial four miles...

 from the sea to Longbridge.

Richard, finding that he was physically too weak to adopt his father's calling, and having received a fair education, opened a school about 1803 in the parish of Chiddingly

Chiddingly

Chiddingly is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, some five miles northwest of Hailsham. The parish is rural in character: it includes the village of Chiddingly and a collection of hamlets: the largest of these being Muddles Green and Thunder's Hill; others...

, where he resided till within a few months of his death. He also carried on the business of land surveyor, and was factotum in most of the parochial offices. From his childhood he was addicted to rhyming, much to his mother's displeasure.

He died at the residence of his third son, Joseph Richard Lower, surveyor, High Street, Tonbridge

Tonbridge

Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, 29 September 1865.

Works

His best-known production is Tom Cladpole's Jurney to Lunnon, told by himself, and written in pure Sussex doggerel by his Uncle Tim, and printed in 1830 as a sixpenny pamphlet. Of this at least twenty thousand copies were sold, chiefly among the cottagers in East Sussex

East Sussex

East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...

, who, however, resented Lower's sarcasms at their expense. It was followed in 1844 by Jan Cladpole's Trip to Merricur, written all in rhyme by his Father, Tim Cladpole, which was principally directed against slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

. In 1862 he published Stray Leaves from an Old Tree, Selections from the Scribblings of an Octogenarian.

Family

Richard Lower was married to Mary Oxley in 1803.

They had 7 children:

• Martha Oxley Lower - 1807,
• Alfred Ebeneezer Lower - 1809 - He died on 15 March 1812 in Chiddingly, Sussex, England,
• Mark Antony Lower
  Mark Antony Lower
  Mark Antony Lower F.S.A. M.A. was a Sussex historian who founded the Sussex Archaeological Society and is credited with starting the "cult of the Sussex Martyrs", however he was against the excesses of the "Bonfire Boys".-Life:...
  
  - 1814 - He died on 28 March 1876 in St Anne, Lewes, Sussex, England,
• Joseph Richard Lower - 1816 - He died in 1891,
• Mary Lower - 1817,
• Jerimina Lower - 1819,
• Matthew Henry Lower - 1822.

His eldest daughter, Mrs. Quaife, was well known as a nurse in America in the federal army.