Lowell family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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", determined at the age of 68 that the future was in the New World. A man of wealth, he sailed from England aboard the merchant vessel, the Jonathan, in April, 1639 with a party of 16 people: his two sons John (1595–1647) and Richard (1602–82) and their wives, servants, furniture and livestock.

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 north shore of the Merrimack River on the border of the failing Province of Maine.

It was John and Richard who changed their surname to Lowell after becoming established in the new world.

John's descendants would migrate southward establishing the line that would become the Boston Lowells, one of the original Brahmin families of Boston, a family of great wealth and influence in education, banking, law, and culture. Studying at Harvard University would become a family tradition lasting for nearly 300 years; indeed, one of Harvard's undergraduate dorms, the Lowell House, was named in the family's honor.

Richard's descendants would migrate north and establish the line that became known as the Maine Lowells.

Both branches have a history rich in boat building, shipping trade, ranching/farming, and pioneering. Today one is likely to find Lowells descendant from either branch in every state in the U.S. as well as other parts of the world such as Malta and Puerto Rico.

The Lowells' distant cousins in England, Australia, and other British Empire locations still use the medieval spelling of Lowle.