THOMAS

See also:

• THOMAS LOWNDES (1692-1748)
• LOWNDES, WILLIAM THOMAS (1798-1843)

LOWNDES (1692-1748)  , founder of the Lowndean professorship of astronomy at Cambridge university, England, was born in 1692, both his father and mother being Cheshire landowners . In 1725 he was appointed provost marshal of South Carolina, a post he preferred to fill by deputy . In 1727 Lowndes claimed to have taken a prominent part in inducing the British government to purchase Carolina, but he surrendered his patent when the transfer of the colony to the crown was completed . His patent was renewed in 1730, but he resigned it in 1733 . He then brought various impractical schemes before the government to check the illicit trade in wool between Ireland and France; to regulate the paper currency of New England; and to supply the navy with salt from brine, &c . He died on the 12th of May 1748 . By his will he left his inherited Cheshire properties to the university of Cambridge for the foundation of a chair of astronomy and geometry .