Richard Lower (1782–1865) was an English dialect poet.

Life

Lower, born at

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 (6 km) north-east of Seaford and south of the main A27 trunk road and part ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, 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 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 (328 ft) in its ...

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 ( ) is an English village and civil parish in the Wealden District of the administrative county of East Sussex, within historic Sussex, some five miles (8 km) northwest of Hailsham. The parish is rural in character: it inc ...

, 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 ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, 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 is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

, 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 and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. 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, the fourth of whom was the antiquary

Mark Antony Lower Mark Antony Lower F.S.A. M.A. (1813–1876) was a Sussex historian and schoolteacher who founded the Sussex Archaeological Society. An anti-Catholic propagandist Lower is believed to have started the "cult of the Sussex Martyrs", although he was ...

References

;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lower, Richard 1782 births 1865 deaths People from Alfriston English abolitionists English male poets People from Chiddingly