Rawlins Lowndes (January 6, 1721August 24, 1800) was an American lawyer, planter and politician who became involved in the patriot cause after election to South Carolina's legislature, although he opposed independence from Great Britain. Lowndes served as president/governor of
South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = "Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = G ...
during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...
, and after the war opposed his state's ratification of the U.S. Constitution because it would restrict the
trans-Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
. Lowndes also served as a state legislator and mayor of Charleston before his death. Two of his sons,
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the ...
and
William Lowndes, would serve in the
U.S. Congress.
Early and family life
Lowndes was born on the island of
St. Kitts in the
British West Indies
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Gre ...
in January 1721, the third son of British merchant Charles Lowndes (d. 1736) and his wife, the former Ruth Rawlins (d. 1763; from a locally important family). His father resigned from the St. Kitts legislature in 1731 and moved his young family and slaves to Charleston, South Carolina. However, he committed suicide five years later, distraught over failed investments. His eldest son, William Lowndes, returned to St. Kitts with his widowed mother, married in 1739 and became a local legislator like many maternal relatives. His younger sons remained in South Carolina and were placed in the care of the provost marshal (local sheriff), Robert Hall. The elder, Charles Lowndes, was then 17, and after finishing his education under Hall's direction, became a planter in
Colleton County, South Carolina
Colleton County is in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,604. Its county seat is Walterboro. The county is named after Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet, one of the eight Lo ...
. He would also marry and serve briefly as its provost marshal (after his younger brother Rawlins as discussed below) before his death in 1763. Hall trained Rawlins as a lawyer, and when the provost marshal died in 1740 the local bar recommended that only a temporary successor be named, in order that Rawlins Lowndes could become Hall's permanent successor as provost marshal when he reached legal age two years later, noting that in 1725 the post had been granted by the proprietors of Carolina to his uncle Thomas Lowndes of Westminster, his heirs and assigns, and that when the Crown succeeded to the proprietors' rights, that grant was renewed, although Thomas Lowndes never left England but assigned it to others.
Career
Upon reaching the legal age of 21, Lowndes was appointed as the
Provost-Marshal of South Carolina. He served in this role for ten years, from 1742 to 1752. His success as a lawyer, and through favorable marriages discussed below, led him to acquire large plantations on the
Ashley,
Combahee and
Santee River
}
The Santee River is a river in South Carolina in the United States, and is long. The Santee and its tributaries provide the principal drainage for the coastal areas of southeastern South Carolina and navigation for the central coastal plain of ...
s, which he farmed using enslaved labor.
Upon resigning as provost-marshal Lowndes won election to the Royal Assembly, the colonial legislature, and rose to become its Speaker, as well as "justice of the quorum", in which capacity he ordered a printer freed who had been imprisoned on order of the governor and council. However, Lowndes resigned his legislative position upon receiving a royal appointment as associate justice for the colony in 1766.
[Chase p. 14] In that position, he declared the Stamp Act unlawful, against common rights and thus unenforceable before his court. This displeased the colony's chief judge, Gordon, who brought charges against Lowndes before the governor and council, but Lowndes was acquitted unanimously. Nonetheless, upon receiving a letter from Attorney General Simpson (who shortly thereafter returned to England), the governor removed Lowndes from his judicial office in early 1775. Nonetheless, when Judge Gordeon was shortly thereafter reassigned to Jamaica, Lowndes received an appointment as South Carolina's Chief Justice.
During his years as a South Carolina political leader, Lowndes became a guiding force in South Carolina’s revolutionary government. In June 1775, the
Provincial Congresses appointed Lowndes to the
Committee of Safety together with
Henry Laurens
Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...
,
Charles Pinckney and ten other men. In September, 1775, the last royal governor Lord William Campbell, fled to a warship in the harbor after refusing to recognize the provincial Congress, which declared the colony's independence 6 months later, in March 1776. By that time,
John Rutledge
John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Addition ...
was president of the senate, and Lowndes became a member of the legislative council.
Lowndes became a member of the First and Second
Provincial Congresses, the First and Second
General Assemblies, and South Carolina's First and Second
Committee of Safety. In 1776, Lowndes was one of eleven committee members charged with the responsibility of writing a draft
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
for South Carolina.
Despite his involvement in challenging increasingly harsh British measures leading up to the American Revolution, Lowndes opposed armed rebellion and independence from
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
.
On March 7, 1778 South Carolina General Assembly elected Lowndes President of South Carolina. He succeeded
John Rutledge
John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Addition ...
(and would also be succeeded by Rutledge). Lowndes approved major changes to the state constitution on March 19, 1778, despite Rutledge's prior veto. The first changed the title of South Carolina’s chief executive from "president" to "governor". Other major changes removed the governor’s power to veto legislation, created a
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
elected via
popular election, and disestablished the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
in South Carolina. By this time, the conflict had reached South Carolina (and Lowndes' plantations had been raided, once causing him to yoke oxen to his carriage, all his horses having been carried off). Lowndes cooperated with General
Benjamin Lincoln
Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 ( O.S. January 13, 1733) – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lincoln was involved in three major surrender ...
and also ordered a general embargo of the former colony's ports, forbidding any vessels from leaving.
[Chase p. 16]
After serving as President of South Carolina, Lowndes was elected to the South Carolina Senate from St. Bartholomew's parish (which he had previously represented in the lower house), then won election and re-election to the House of Representatives in 1787 representing Charleston (St. Philip's and St. Michael's parishes) until 1790, when he decided against running for re-election after the capital was moved to
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
.
As assemblyman in 1788, Lowndes strenuously opposed the motion to accept the federal
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
. He spoke four times in the 3-day debate, particularly opposing the clauses giving Congress power to regulate commerce, restricting the trans-Atlantic slave trade after 1808; and to the centralization of power which would accrue to the federal government. However, he refused to stand for election to the state's convention debating the federal Constitution, which was adopted by a 140 vote to 73 vote margin.
During the same period, Lowndes becam
intendant(mayor) of Charleston, from September 1788 to September 1789.
Personal life

Rawlins Lowndes himself married three times. His first marriage, on August 15, 1748, was to Amarintihia Elliott, daughter of Thomas Elliot of Rantoules plantation on the
Stono River
The Stono River or Creek is a tidal channel in southeast South Carolina, located southwest of Charleston. The channel runs southwest to northeast between the mainland and Wadmalaw Island and Johns Island, from north Edisto River between Johns ...
, but she died in January 1750. Lowndes next married Mary Cartwight of Charleston on December 23, 1751, and they had ten children, several of which died as children. His sons
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the ...
(b. 1766) and
William
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...
(b. 1782) would both follow their father's careers as lawyers, legislators and planters. Three daughters lived to marry and two had children: Amarintha Lowndes Sanders Champney, Harriett Lowndes Brown and Sarah-Ruth Lowndes Brown. Rawlins Lowndes' final marriage was to Sarah Jones, the mother of William Jones Lowndes; the widow only survived her husband by months, dying in a carriage accident while riding with her son, who survived.
Death and legacy
Lowndes died in
Charleston, South Carolina, on August 24, 1800, and was buried in St. Philip's cemetery.
References
External links
SCIway Biography of Rawlins LowndesNGA Biography of Rawlins Lowndes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowndes, Rawlins
1721 births
1800 deaths
South Carolina lawyers
American people of English descent
Governors of South Carolina
Members of the South Carolina House of Representatives
People of South Carolina in the American Revolution
Mayors of Charleston, South Carolina
People from Saint Kitts
18th-century American politicians
Saint Kitts and Nevis people of British descent