John Lowry (Parliamentarian)

John Lowry (died 1669) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1653. He served in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War.

Lowry was a chandler of Cambridge,^[1] and became a freeman of the city by apprenticeship.^[2] He became one of the Common Council of Cambridge^[2] and in November 1640, he was elected Member of Parliament for Cambridge in the Long Parliament, sharing the constituency with Oliver Cromwell.^[3] In the Civil War, Lowry became a colonel in the parliamentary army and in 1645 was seeking resources from the speaker of the Commons.^[4] He was then mayor of Cambridge and he came into dispute with Cambridge University when he refused to take the customary oath to maintain the rights of the University. The University appealed to the House of Lords. The matter was not resolved until 1647 when the House of Lords ruled in favour of the Vice-Chancellor and made a general order that the Mayor should respect the privileges of the University.^[5] In 1659 Lowry was re-elected MP for Cambridge in the Third Protectorate Parliament.^[3]

References

1. Carlyle Letters
2. 'The city of Cambridge: Parliamentary representation', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3: The City and University of Cambridge (1959), pp. 68-76. Date accessed: 9 June 2011
3. Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
4. Charles Henry Cooper Annals of Cambridge
5. 'The University of Cambridge: The early Stuarts and Civil War', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3: The City and University of Cambridge (1959), pp. 191-210. Date accessed: 9 June 2011