Lowell family

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Lowell
Lowell_CoatOfArms.jpg
Current region United States
Information
Connected families Cabot

The Lowell family settled on the North Shore at Cape Ann after they arrived in Boston on June 23, 1639. The patriarch, Percival Lowle (1571–1664), described as a "solid citizen of Bristol",[citation needed] determined at the age of 68 that the future was in the New World.

Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop needed solid dependable people to settle the North Shore area as a buffer against the French from Canada and he urged that the Lowells relocate to Newburyport on the Merrimack River, at the border of the failing Province of Maine.

Contents

[edit] Ancestry in England

[edit] Origin of the name

Many suggestions about the origins of the medieval name Lowle were offered during the late 20th century. Some argued that it was Welsh or Saxon while others supported the name was of Norman origin. One possibility is that it originates from the Latin word lupellus (wolf-cub) from Latin lupus (wolf), and was a cadet branch of an ancient Franco noble family, most notably of the family that included Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester, also known as Hugh Lupus, a nephew of William the Conqueror.

Lowell family historian Delmar R. Lowell, gave much weight and persuasion to the origins of the name Lowle in his work and he and others concluded the Lowles of England were unquestionably of Norman descent and came into England with William the Conqueror.[1] The Lowell Family is on the NEHGS Royal descent list.

Lowell's research relied heavily on a few principles that must be assumed to be true in order to support his theory. First, he cites a William Louel as being listed on the Battle Abbey Roll; a list of Norman supporters who attended the invasion of England at the side of the Duke of Normandy in 1066 and fought in the Battle of Hastings. This list, which began with just over 600 names, grew to over 3000 in the centuries afterwards, and has since been discredited, having many names from emigration following the Norman conquest. Second, he assumes that Louel was transformed to Lowle, at some point in the 200 years between 1066 and 1288, when his own documentation runs into a dead end with William Lowle of Yardley in Worcestershire.

There is a possibility that Lowell is right. The use of the letters U and V, being interchangeable in medieval times, and of W, made popular by the Normans by 1300, do make such a transition appropriate.

There were still Louels in England on the Scottish Marches in the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh when Edward Longshanks, King of England, ordered the nobility and gentry in Scotland to swear an oath of allegiance to him in the Ragman Roll in 1291. It is during this period, in 1288, that the earliest documentation for the name Lowle appears. William Lowle of Yardley in Worcestershire is documented as a yeoman, and standing as a witness to a border dispute between two of his neighbours. It is from this period that Delmar Lowell traces the descent of the Lowles through England until their departure for the colonies.

Documentation for this period also exists in The National Archives of England showing that there were also Lowels in the Welsh Marches. In 1317, William de Braose, 1st Baron Braose petitioned King Edward II, the King's Council, and the Parliament to request that Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March send two justices to arrest and bring to trial 200–300 men he accused of attacking his Knights and Ministers and for, "trespasses made against the King's peace to Brewose and his people of Gower.", a peninsula, part of Glamorgan in Wales. Members named in this band of men included Ieuan and Griffith Lowel for the attack at Eynon.

Delmar Lowell also suggests the long line of noble Norman families that Lowle progenitors married into implies that the name Lowle is of Norman origin. Powerful Norman and Angevin dynasties often married their daughters to their enemies for political and financial reasons. The same applied in the Scottish and Welsh Marches where powerful nobles, the Marcher Lords, were placed by Kings to act as a buffer between England and its enemies to the north and to the west. The Lowles married daughters of noble English families including Wake, Lyttleton, Russell, and Percival. For example, First Settler Percival Lowle's father Richard married Ann Percival.

[edit] Coat of Arms

The Harleian Society, a British publisher of the official Royal Heraldic visitations, describes the Lowle Coate of Arms from the herald's records taken in Somersetshire in the years 1573, 1591, and 1623.

  • Blazon: Sable, a dexter hand couped at the wrist grasping three darts, one in pale and two in saltire, all in argent.
  • Crest: A Stag's head cabossed, between the attires a pheon azure.
  • Motto: Occasionem Cognosce (oh-kay-see-OH-nem kogg-NOHS-keh).

The English translation: A shield with black field displaying a right hand cut-off at the wrist and grabbing three arrows, one vertical and two crossed diagonally, in silver. Above the shield, a male deer's head mounted behind the ear, and between its antlers a barbed, broad arrowhead in blue. And a loose translation of the family motto, Know Your Opportunity.

The use of the Lowle Coate of Arms has varied slightly between the generations; some families omitted the pheon azzure or substituted blunted bolts for the pointed darts; and one generation, notably a pastor, used an urn in his families crest instead of the stag's head. The right for a man to bear arms traditionally passes from father to eldest son; occasionally subsequent generations change the Coat of Arms to reflect their lives or vocations better, sometimes even "quartering" their Coat of Arms with another family by way of marriage.

It's mentionable that some believe that the Lowle Coat of Arms fell into abeyance when Percival Lowle and his son's emigrated to Massachusetts. They were still subjects of the Crown and its favor until the colonies declared Independence from Britain in 1776 and were entitled to bear their Coat of Arms. Also, there were a number of Lowles who remained in England who could claim the right.

[edit] Lowle to Lowell

After Percival Lowle emigrated to the New World with his sons and after some subsequent generations Lowle became Lowell. Delmar Lowell suggests that Rev. John Lowell was the catalyst in getting the Lowell family into cohesion regarding the spelling of the surname sometime after 1721. At the time, Lowells all over New England spelled their names as many different ways as there were branches. Some spelled their surname Lowel, Lowle, Lowell, Lowl, and some spelled it Louell, and Louel even after arriving in the new world. Spelling was so poorly controlled that some early wills show one son with the name Lowle while another son is Lowel and the wife as Lowell all in the same document. It's unlikely that one member of the family had such a big impact on the name. He may well have influenced many Lowells in America to be consistent, however, documentation shows that Lowles in England started spelling their name Lowell around this time as well. By the mid 18th century in England there are plenty of documents for Lowells and none for the prior spellings. This suggests that the proliferation of literacy and a trend to standardize the English language caused members of the family on both sides of the Atlantic to adopt the phonetic spelling.

[edit] Notable Lowells

Among those, Abbott Lawrence, Amy, Augustus, Carey, Charles Russell Sr., Charles Russell, Edward Jackson, Francis Cabot, Guy, John Amory, Judge John, Percival, and Robert are known to be descendants of Percival Lowle.

Other notable descendants:

Other descendants of Percival Lowle:[citation needed]

[edit] Portrait gallery

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lowell, Delmar R., The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 (pp 208-209); Rutland VT, The Tuttle Company, 1899; ISBN 9780788415678.

[edit] External links

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