Whatmore Family History

I hope I may be forgiven if from time to time I write a post about a non -Whatmore ancestor of a particular branch of the Whatmore family.  In the case of William Lowe, he is the ancestor of all those people who descend from the marriage of James Whatmore to Ann Lowe in 1819 at Neen Savage. When I first came across this  marriage I had no idea about her illustrious ancestors.

Ann had been baptised in 1802 at Highley, the daughter of a Thomas and a Sarah, and when I looked on the IGI I was excited to find that I was able to trace her line back for  many generations to a WILLIAM LOWE. Checking this speculative tree against the Highley Parish Registers, I found that it was correct and was confirmed by the charts of several nineteenth century genealogists. I also found that the family had a coat of arms, and the pedigree chart in the published version of the Herald’s Visitation of Shropshire was also a complete match. Next I referred to Burke’s ‘General Armory’ and found that the LOWE families of Highley and of Calne in Wiltshire had an identical coat of arms. This was puzzling but when I referred to the pedigree chart in the published version of the Herald’s Visitation of Wiltshire I found that as in the Shropshire Visitation chart, the coat of arms had been granted to a William Lowe of Salop in 1586. Unfortunately the two charts showed different wives and children for William. Was he then the same person? Luckily the Wiltshire chart gave the names of William’s parents and  the records of the appointment of William Lowe of Salop as a burgess of Shrewsbury in 1551 gave the same parental names and place of origin as in the Wiltshire chart. Further research enabled me to put together the story of William, albeit with many speculative dates. 

WILLIAM LOWE was born about 1515, the son of  John Lowe and his wife Jane (nee Atkins), of Callaughton, near Much Wenlock. John was a husbandman and his father was a Richard Lowe from Malpas. Despite this, it seems likely from the fact that William’s descendants took over the Borle Mill at Highley from another branch of the Lowe family, that it was in Highley that William’s family had its roots. Although some Lowe families in England claim descendant from followers of William the Conquerer, it seems likely that most LOWE families take their name from  ‘hlaw’, the Old English for hill. Just across the river from Highley at Alveley, there were  LOWEs from very early times and a Lowe Farm still exists. In the fields near the farmhouse are rectangular earthworks which suggest the site of an early moated farmstead.   

WILLIAM LOWE was most likely born at Callaughton, but he was apprenticed as a draper to  Richard Whitefote in Shrewbury. (Records of the Drapers’ Company). He married, in about 1535, Margaret Clay of Moreton Say near Market Drayton. They had three known children, Thomas the heir, Joyce and John.

By 1551, he was running his own business, apparently with great success as in that year he became a burgess of Shrewsbury. The entry fine for a burgess was two pounds ten shillings at that time – about half a year’s income for a small craftsman.  In that year he also became a member of the Draper’s Company paying 13 shillings and fourteen pence as the ‘fine’ (membership) and 12 pence for the wine! In the 1550s William appears to have taken out a lease on the Prebend, Manor and Parsonage of Calne in Wiltshire  as one of his descendants claimed in 1661 that the Lowe family had held this lease for over a hundred years. Why William did this is unknown, but the children of his second wife certainly settled at Calne later on. 

William’s first wife died and in about 1552 he remarried to ISABELL BROMHALL, the daughter of Thomas Bromhall of Cheshire. William and Isabel had eight known children. Whilst their dates of baptism are not known, one daughter Isabel, was buried in 1560 at St Julian’s, Shrewsbury and another, Margaret, was married at the same church in 1575 to a Rowland Stonyard.   

In 1555, William was listed under ‘Drapers of Shrewsbury’ as one of the trained soldiers of the Queen:          

William Lowe, gent. Warden,

in armour one black bill         

One stille coate, two sallets & tow sculles.        

John Beds, his servant. 

A ‘black bill’ was a weapon consisting of a large steel blade divided at the top into a hook and a pike, having a pike also at the back. It was mounted on a long wooden shaft painted black. A ‘sallett’ was a steel head piece fitting close to the skull, with a projection behind.  A ‘scull’ was an iron or steel head piece shaped like a bowl without a brim and was used by the rank and file. ‘Warden’ would appear to refer to the Draper’s Company which consisted of a Master, a Warden, a Junior Warden and members. If William was indeed a Warden by 1555 he had been elected to a senior position in the company very quickly. 

In 1572, William was elected for one year as one of the two Bailiffs of Shrewsbury, along with Thomas Sherar. The bailiffs had to be worth at least £100 in goods or possess property worth at least £10 a year.  They were expected to have sufficient resources to support the dignity of their office. Their dress at this time was a long robe with a ruffed collar and a large hat with a wide brim. On meeting a bailiff you were expected to doff your cap and you were not allowed to address a bailiff using the familiar ‘thou’ form – only the polite ‘you’ form of address being permitted (‘Everyday Life in Tudor Shrewsbury’). The bailiffs’ accounts for 1572 and 1573 still exist at Shropshire Archives and it is fascinating to think that William Lowe would have handled these documents. 

In 1586 when William was about 71, he obtained a grant of a coat of arms (Gules, a wolf passant argent) from Herald Robert Cooke Clarence. The shield shows a silver wolf on a red background, obviously a pun on ‘lou’ or ‘leu’- the Anglo-Norman for wolf.  

William Lowe is again included as a trained soldier in a list of 1587. Under the heading of drapers it states:          

 William Lowe, gent.

In armor one Corslett, one blacke  Bill.

Charles Pue, servant. 

A ‘corslett’ was a cuirass (armour for protecting the breast and back) having a skirt of overlapping steel plates, called tasses.

 It was in 1587 that William Lowe made his will and this shows that he had become very rich, owning the following properties in Shrewsbury:          

Five pastures in or near Frankville         

Eight messuages in Frankville         

Three barns in Frankville         

One pasture called ‘Little Copthorne’ near Frankville         

Four butts and two pastures near Frankville

Three messuages at Coton

Three messuages in Shrewsbury 

A ‘messuage’ was a dwelling house and the term could also include outbuildings, orchards, a courtyard and a garden. a ‘butt’ was an area of ground lying between two furlongs.

The will makes no reference to the properties at Calne, the lease opf which was probably held by one of William’s sons, nor is mention made of William’s own home or place of business. 

William was buried on 5 March 1588 at St Alkmund’s, Shrewsbury. His widow, Isabelwas buried there on 13 June 1605, but a note in the register says that  she was of St Julian’s parish. If , as seems probable, there was as memorial brass to William and Isabel in St Alkmund’s church, it was sold as scrapmetal with all the other brasses when the church was rebuilt.

So what became of  William’s descendants? His eldest son Thomas, born about 1536, is described in the Herald’s Visitation as ‘of ‘Highley’ and was still living in 1587 as he is mentioned in his father’s will. Thomas’ own son, another Thomas born about 1559, later lived at the Borle Mill, Netherton, Highley - but how he acquired it is unknown. It was still in the hands of another branch of the family in 1580.

 The ruins of the Borle Mill at Netherton, Highley

Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

To see a drawing of what the Mill probably looked like when it was functioning, and an article about it, use this link: http://www.discovershropshire.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/theme:20070204211442

The main line of William’s descendants at Highley prospered and purchased land and properties including the manor House, thereby becoming Lords of the Manor, but other descendants started to slip down the social scale. Thomas, born about 1559 outlived all this sons and his heir was his grandson Thomas, born in 1617 in Clerkenwell, London. This Thomas returned to Highley to live, but the family fortunes were chanding and he started to sell off the family properties, retaining the Borle Mill. This was not sold until 1656 by Thomas’s son - another Thomas born in 1639 at Highley.  This is the last definite information we have on the main line opf family except for a family chart devised by Rev. Ralph Purton which shows this Thomas as having three sons:  Thomas, Arthur and Robert. There are no baptisms to be found in Shropshire and since this family had connections with London, it may be that  the Thomas lowe baptised in 1664 at St Gregory’s by the Tower, and the Robert baptised in 1677 at All Hallows the Less, both the children of a Thomas and Mary, represent the continuation of the main line of the family.  The Lowe family of Wrockwardine have a tradition that they descended from one of the Thomas Lowe’s of Highley, but I have found no evidence for this.

William’s descendants at Calne also prospered. The eldest son of William Lowe and his second wife Isabel was Richard Lowe born about 1570. He served as MP for Calne in 1597, 1601 and 1614. Another of William and Isabel’s sons - George Lowe born about 1572 was a London merchant and served as MP for Calne in 1625, 1626, 1628/9 and 1640-44, but was disabled as an MP in 1644 because of his support for the King. George Lowe became a member of the King’s anti-parliament at Oxford and was fined £750 in December 1645 and a further £300 in March 1646. In November 1649, george settled with the Committee of Compounding by paying a further £336. Although George’s son - another George Lowe born in 1600  became MP for Calne in 1661, the family’s Royalist sympathies were still viewed with disfavour in some quarters  as in that year George petitioned Parliament beacause the Treasurer of the Cathedral Church of Sarum [Salisbury] was refusing to grant the Lowe family a new lease on the properties at Calne. The Petition states:

‘ … And having been a great Sufferer for his late Majesty and also his now Majesty, by Imprisonments, Plunder, Composition, Sequestration and Decimation, yet the said Doctor [Treasurer of Sarum Cathedral] doth refuse to grant a new lease.’

I have been unable to ascertain whether this Petition was succesful. The last Lowe baptism at Calne shown on the IGI is that of an Ann Lowe in 1637 but it seems likely that the family line continued in London.

 In compiling this account I have been much indebted to the following sources:

‘Highley - The Development of a Community 1550 -1880′ by Gwyneth Nair, published by Basil Blackwell 1988

‘Everyday Life in Tudor Shrewsbury’ by Bill Champion, published by Shropshire Books 1994

‘Wiltshire Notes and Queries’ June 1894′