Guide to the Correspondence of Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke, 1st Viscount (as filmed by the AJCP), 1819-15 September 1924

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Summary

Collection number:

M398

Creator:

Lowe, Robert, Viscount Sherbrooke

Extent:

28 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

1. 20 letters 1840-49 written mainly by Georgiana Lowe to her sister-in-law Agnes Lowe and a relative, Mrs Sherbrooke. The letters describe life in Sydney, conditions in the colony in general, and political developments.

2. Miscellanea including notes on debates at Oxford 1831, in which Lowe participated; newspaper cuttings including material on Australia and items of biographical interest; letter 28 July 1896 from Joseph Chamberlain containing reminiscences of Sherbrooke.

Biographical / Historical:

Robert Lowe (1811-1892), Viscount Sherbrooke, was born at Bingham, Nottinghamshire, the son of the Reverend Robert Lowe and his wife Ellen. He was educated at Winchester College and University College, Oxford. In 1836 he married Georgiana Orred. He was a private tutor at Oxford and in 1840 studied law at Lincolns Inn, London. He practised at the London Bar, but in 1842 he decided to emigrate to New South Wales.

Lowe and his wife arrived in Sydney in October 1842 and he was immediately admitted to practise at the New South Wales Supreme Court. Problems with his eyesight caused him to stop working, but in October 1843 he resumed his legal practice. In the same month Sir George Gipps appointed him a member of the Legislative Council. He was soon recognised as one of the outstanding speakers in the Council and his fame spread when he defended John Knatchbull in a murder case in 1844. In that year, he fell out with Gipps and resigned from the Council. He launched the weekly journal, The Atlas, which pushed for responsible government and colonial control of waste lands. In 1845 he returned to the Legislative Council. He opposed the renewal of convict transportation, but he lost popular support by supporting the bounty immigration bill. Georgiana Lowe was in poor health and in January 1850 the Lowes left Sydney and returned to England.

Lowe was a leader writer for The Times and in 1852 was elected to the House of Commons. He held a number of posts in the Liberal ministries led by Lord Palmerston and W.E. Gladstone: vice-president of the Board of Trade (1855-58), vice-president of the Committee of the Council of Education (1859-64), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1869-73) and Home Secretary (1873-74). In 1880 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Sherbrooke.

Georgiana Lowe died in 1884 and in the following year Lowe married Caroline Sneyd. He had no children and his peerage became extinct.

Elizabeth Agnes Lowe (1809-1860) was a sister of Robert Lowe.

Anne Sherbrooke (d. 1847) was the wife of William Sherbrooke (d. 1831) of Oxton Hall, Southwell. He was the brother of General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke (1764-1830), whose wife Katherina was the aunt of Robert Lowe. Following Anne Sherbrooke's death, her husband's estates passed to Robert Lowe's older brother, Henry Porter Lowe (1810-1887), who assumed the name Sherbrooke.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.