Why the Lowthers sold up in West Cumbria

Their cherished ancestral home was in the east of the county and, never having felt the same emotional ties to West Cumberland, nor ever being in permanent residence at the Flatt (Whitehaven Castle), it was obvious that when money was needed to pay the Treasury, it was those interests out west that would have to go.

In a sell, sell, sell, frame of mind most of the Lowther estate lands in West Cumberland were sold off between 1955 and 1959. It is not known exactly how high the death duties bill was, but it was thought to be around £500,000, which doesn’t seem that much nowadays but then would have represented a considerable sum to find.

In a talk entitled “Breaking up is hard to do...” historian Dr Alan Crosby relates how over a 30-year period the West Cumberland estate of the Lowthers was systematically dismantled, in the wake of two deaths. The man known as the Yellow Earl, Hugh Cecil Lowther, the 5th Earl of Lonsdale, died in 1944, then nine years later, his younger brother, Lancelot, the 6th Earl, died.

In its heyday, Whitehaven, said Dr Crosby, was a phenomenal place, by both national and European standards; the first coherently-planned town since medieval times and, had it been located nearer to Brighton or Eastbourne, rather than in the far flung north-west, there would be much more about the town to be found in national records. Whitehaven was a town created to serve industry, the first new town of the industrial revolution, with its grid pattern of streets, its quality of building, with strongly controlled covenants and restrictions put on by the Lowthers.

Penrith was the ancient heartland of the Lowthers, but (by marriage and acquisition) they had accumulated substantial estates, not only in land holding but also manorial rights.

While some family estates were badly damaged by the Civil War of the 1640s, that of the Lowthers remained in tact. They had begun to expand rapidly in the reign of Charles II and steadily built on their land and property assets. They had, for instance, acquired half the manor of St Bees, the other half held by St Bees School.

On the death of Sir John Lowther in 1706, the estate was to pass to his second son, James, who, like his father, spent most of the year in London as MP for Cumberland. The principal wealth of the Lowther estate was from the coal trade with Ireland and Sir James made extensive improvements to the harbour and sank dozens of new pits. Sir James Lowther (1673-1755) the 4th Baronet, was very cautious with money, earning himself the nickname Farthing Jemmy. It was said he knew where every farthing was and would not spend it unless he had to. He disliked any form of luxury, leading a frugal lifestyle, and was described as the richest commoner in England when he died with a personal wealth in excess of £1million. Interestingly however, he did spare a thought to others less fortunate than himself: in 1739 he became a founding governor of a charity in London, the Foundling Hospital, which would give unwed mothers an alternative to abandoning their babies by providing a child care institution where they could be raised.

Sir James died on January 2, 1755, in London. Unmarried and without an heir, he left his estates to his fourth cousin once removed, Sir William Lowther of Holker, 3rd Baronet. When William died in 1756, also without an heir the estate went back to the Yorkshire branch of the family, Sir William Lowther of Swillington (1757-1844) who inherited the Whitehaven estates and was created 1st Earl of Lonsdale.

Thereafter followed William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787–1872); Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl (1818–1876) and St George Henry Lowther, 4th Earl 1855–1882).

By now the West Cumbrian estate was seen as secondary in status to the east – there was no owner in residence, it was indeed a good source of wealth, but carried no social kudos. The Lowthers were involved in national politics but road routes to the west of the county were so bad, they rarely bothered to visit. Their emotional attachment to West Cumberland was very much depleted, so the Lowthers would eventually decide to retain their East Cumberland and Westmorland estates and sell off the rest. In the two counties the Lowthers owned a total of 67,457 acres.

There were a number of leading local families but none so rich as the Lowthers. Local Lordships of the Manor were in the main held by the Lonsdales, the Leconfields, the Egremonts, the Curwens, the Ponsonbys, the Lamplughs, the Penningtons... and St Bees School.

In the early 18th century, the Lowthers acquired the manors of Seaton, Clifton and Calder. The Leconfields and Lowthers were arch-rivals, competing for the same types of mineral resources and there were often boundary disputes between them, and also with the Curwens.

The Lowthers bought Seaton in 1837, then Dearham, Ribton, Distington, Kelton, Arlecdon, Weddicar, St Bees, Hensingham, Frizington, Ennerdale and Rottington. All were acquired because they had mineral reserves beneath them.

But having an absentee landowner was always a problem; had there been a resident Lowther in West Cumberland the history of the area might have been very different.

When Sir George Henry Lowther, the 4th Earl died he was just 27 (1855-1882). A cartoon appeared in Vanity Fair of the 4th Earl, a man with enormous personal wealth but for whom drink was his ruin. Even in his 20s he was an alcoholic who lived most of the time in London, hardly ever resident in Cumbria.

The Lowthers eventually owned around 95 manors but in the third quarter of the 19th century, the squandering started. The extravagant Yellow Earl, Hugh Cecil Lowther, the 5th Earl (1857-1944) became known as “Lordy’’ and had a special size of cigar named after him and kept a fleet of yellow Rolls Royce cars. His servants wore yellow livery.

The stewards of the Lowther estate had to keep the funds flowing to support their master’s champagne lifestyle – increasing royalties from West Cumberland coal were used to supplement the income from agriculture from the East Cumbrian estates. The squandering of Lowther resources was just manageable, because coal was funding it, while the Yellow Earl’s lifestyle is one of media celebrity and notoriety.

Then problems arose – World War One shattered the structure of large estates. The agricultural workforce was slaughtered in the trenches and some estates were broken up, sold off piecemeal. That didn’t happen so much with the Lowthers, however, where the style of estate management was more about keeping things steady rather than innovation. But the Yellow Earl had no (official) children and died in 1944, aged 87, without an heir, to be succeeded by his younger brother, Lancelot, the 6th Earl, who then died in 1953.

So now there were two lots of death duties to meet within a relatively short time – nine years.

The estate then passed to the grandson of the 6th Earl, James Lowther (1922-2006), the 7th Earl. His father had disinherited his eldest son. In 1953 James inherited crippling debts but turned out to be the saviour of the Lowther estates. He dismantled the castle, retaining only the shell, sold the materials, developed forestry, agriculture, the Lowther Horse Driving Trials and expanded the estate which remains the largest in the North West of England. James married four times and had children to each of his wives, two to the first, three to the second, one to the third and two to the fourth. He died in 2006 and was succeeded by his eldest son Hugh Clayton Lowther, the present and 8th Earl of Lonsdale.