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 daughter of George Fox. In 1673 Fox and he were arrested at Armscott, Worcestershire, and carried to Worcester gaol, where they remained for more than a year. A letter which would have secured Lower's release was obtained through the interest of his brother, Richard Lower [q. v.], but as it did not mention Fox both of the prisoners continued in restraint. His wife and children lived at Swarthmoor Hall until 1676, when Lower purchased from the Fells the estate of Marsh Grange in Furness, and removed thither. In 1683 he went into Cornwall to transact some private business, and, after holding a religious meeting at Tregangreeves, was apprehended and sentenced to imprisonment for life. His name is first on a petition of quakers in Launceston gaol (1 Aug. 1683), which was presented to Sir Job Charleton, judge, at the assizes, and in spite of occasional periods of liberty he remained a prisoner until released by royal proclamation in 1686. He received from Fox in 1687 instructions respecting the disposition of his property. Under Fox's will he obtained legacies of books, dials, and other property, and it was added that he could assist in compiling an account of the travels and sufferings of the Friends. In 1715 he purchased some of the American property which had belonged to Fox. Lower died in 1720, aged 87, and his wife died in 1719, aged 75. They had ten children, nine daughters and one son, Richard, who was born in 1682, and, after being educated in Holland, died in 1705.

The titles of three works containing testimonies by Lower and of four pamphlets, which were signed by him with others, are specified in the ‘Bibliotheca Cornubiensis,’ i. 327. Daniel Phillips on commencing doctor of physic at Leyden in 1696 dedicated to Lower and others his treatise on the smallpox; and a letter from him to Sir Hans Sloane is in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 4052, fol. 97. He gave the quaker burial-ground at Tregangreeves, which still exists. 

LOWER, WILLIAM (1600?–1662), dramatist, only son of John Lower (the second son of Thomas Lower, d 1609, of St. Winnow, Cornwall), by his wife Mary, was born at Tremeere, Cornwall, about 1600 (, Visitations of Cornwall, 1887, p. 300; cf., who corrects Wood, ‘Chorus Vatum,’ Add. MS. 24489, f. 485). He was educated at neither of the universities, but ‘spent some time in Oxon in the condition of an hospes, for the sake of the public library and scholastical company,’ as his kinsman Richard Lower [q. v.] the physician informed Wood. He evinced a ‘gay fancy’ and a strong aversion from the ‘crabb'd studies of logic and philosophy,’ travelled in France, and became a ‘perfect master of the French tongue.’ In 1639 he published ‘The Phœnix in her Flames. A Tragedy [4 acts in blank verse]: the Scene Arabia, the author Master William Lower,’ London, 4to; dedicated to his cousin William Lower. Of this play, which is at the same time the rarest and liveliest of Lower's printed works, one copy is in the British Museum, while another passed from Corser's collection into the Huth Library (Cat. iii. 370). Genest gives an abstract of the plot, which he describes as ‘romantic, but interesting’ (Account of English Stage, x. 69).

Lower was a lieutenant in Sir Jacob Ashley's regiment in Northumberland's army of 1640 (, Hist. Coll. ii. 1244), and was promoted captain, but lost his company, which proved mutinous and deserted (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 509). In June 1644, being then a lieutenant-colonel in Thomas Blague's regiment, and lieutenant-governor of Wallingford, he received orders from the king to raise 50l. a week from the town of Reading. With commendable promptness and decision, Lower laid hands on the mayor and carried him off to Wallingford as a hostage; he then plied the corporation with diplomatic letters, which failed, however, to extract from them more than a fraction of the sum required (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vii. p. 220). He was taken prisoner by the garrison of Abingdon on 19 Jan. 1645–1646 (Report on Portland MSS. i. 340; Commons' Journals, iv. 416). His zeal was subsequently rewarded by a knighthood, conferred upon him probably on 27 March 1645, though Symonds, who records the fact, omits the name and only gives Lower's office (Diary of Richard Symonds, Camden Soc. p. 162). He seems to have lingered in England until 1655, when he visited Cologne, and cheered the royalists there with the assurance that Cromwell could not live long (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655, p. 365).

Leaving Cologne after a short residence, he ‘took sanctuary in Holland, where in peace and privacy he enjoyed the Society of The Muses’. He seems to have held some post in the household of the Princess Royal (Mary of Orange) [q. v.] at the Hague, and occupied his leisure in translating and adapting French plays, mainly those of Corneille, Quinault, and Ceriziers. In