Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/214

  in the ‘Deserving Favourite’ of Carlell, 1629, Eubulus in the ‘Picture’ of Massinger, 8 June 1629, Domitian in the ‘Roman Actor,’ 11 Oct. 1626, and Belleur in the ‘Wildgoose Chase,’ 2 Nov. 1632. He also played in the following plays of Fletcher: in 1616 in ‘Valentinian’ and ‘Bonduca,’ 1617 ‘Queen of Corinth,’ 1618 ‘Loyal Subject’ and ‘Knight of Malta,’ 1618–19 the ‘Mad Lover,’ 1620 ‘Woman Pleased,’ ‘False One,’ ‘Little French Lawyer,’ ‘Custom of the Country,’ ‘Double Marriage,’ 1621 ‘Laws of Candy,’ ‘Pilgrim,’ ‘Island Princess,’ 1622 ‘Prophetess’ and ‘Spanish Curate,’ 1623 ‘Maid in the Mill’ and ‘Lover's Progress.’ On 11 Jan. 1631 he was Flaminius in Massinger's ‘Believe as you list.’ He remained a member of King Charles's company until the stoppage of theatrical performances in 1642. In the ‘Historia Histrionica’ of Wright, Truman tells Lovewit that before the wars Lowin used to act with mighty applause Falstaff, Morose, Volpone, Mammon in the ‘Alchemist,’ and Melantius in the ‘Maid's Tragedy.’ That the date of these performances was late is shown in the wording of the phrase, and the declaration made by Collier and others that he was not the original Falstaff is superfluous. Roberts the player, in his answer to Pope, says that Lowin was also Hamlet and Henry VIII. Burbage was the first Hamlet, and Taylor the second; Lowin might have been the first Henry VIII. Downes states in the ‘Roscius Anglicanus’ that Betterton was ‘instructed in it by Sir William, who had it from old Mr. Lowen, that had his instructions from Mr. Shakespeare himself’ (Roscius Anglicanus, 1st ed. p. 24).

A portrait of Lowin is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

 LOWMAN, MOSES (1680–1752), nonconformist divine, born in London in 1680, became a student at the Middle Temple in 1697, but a year later abandoned law for divinity. On 17 Sept. 1698 he entered the university of Leyden (, English Students at Leyden, Index Soc., p. 62), and studied theology at Utrecht under De Vries and Witsius. In 1710 he became assistant to Mr. Grace, presbyterian minister at Clapham, but from 1714 till his death acted as chief minister to the congregation. In 1716 Lowman contributed to the second volume of a religious periodical called ‘Occasional Papers,’ and in 1735 he preached, at Salters' Hall, a sermon entitled ‘The Principles of Popery Schismatical.’ Though very active in the performance of his duties, he does not seem to have shown any ability in the pulpit. Lowman died on 2 May 1752; Chandler, who preached his funeral sermon, described him as a man of high character.

Lowman entered into controversy with Collins the deist in ‘Argument from Prophecy that Jesus is the Messiah vindicated, in some considerations on the Prophecies of the Old Testament as grounds and reasons of the Christian Religion,’ a treatise written in 1718, but not printed till 1733. It was praised by Leland. But Lowman was chiefly learned in Jewish antiquities, and his reputation rests on his ‘Dissertation on the Civil Government of the Hebrews,’ 1740, 2nd edit., with appendix, 1745, written in answer to Morgan's ‘Moral Philosopher,’ and said to have been approved by Dr. Sherlock and other churchmen. Of Lowman's ‘Paraphrase and Notes upon the Revelation of St. John’ (1737, 1745, 4to; 1791, 1807, 8vo) Doddridge (Works, ii. 37, Leeds edit.) wrote: ‘I have received more satisfaction with respect to’ the difficulties of the subject ‘than ever I found elsewhere, or expected to find at all.’ Lowman's ‘Paraphrase’ forms the concluding portion of the modern collective editions of the ‘Commentaries’ of Patrick, Lowth, Whitby, and Arnald.

Lowman's other works are: 1. ‘A Defence of Protestant Dissenters, in answer to Sherlock's “Vindication of the Corporation and Test Acts,”’ 1718. 2. ‘Remarks on Dr. Sherlock's Answer to the Bishop of Bangor's “Common Rights of Subjects,”’ 1719. 3. ‘An Argument to prove the Unity and Perfections of God à priori,’ 1735. 4. ‘Considerations on Mr. Foster's “Discourse on Jewish Theocracy,”’ 1744. 5. ‘A Rationale of the Ritual of the Hebrew Worship, in which the design and usefulness of that Ritual are explained and vindicated,’ 1748. 6. Three posthumous tracts, with preface, revised and published by Chandler and Lardner, 1756.

 LOWNDES, THOMAS (1692–1748), founder of the Lowndes chair of astronomy, Cambridge, was baptised at Astbury, 