Lowe (Revd Richard Thomas) 1Life, residence and death
Lowe (Revd Richard Thomas)
Original title: Lowe (Padre Ricardo Tomás)
Biography of the Reverend Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874), English clergyman and naturalist who lived in Madeira from 1826 to 1852 and produced foundational works on its fishes, flora and molluscs. The Elucidário calls him the foreigner who rendered the greatest scientific services to Madeira.
1Life, residence and death
English naturalist, born on 4 December 1802. He came to Madeira in 1826 and stayed until 1852, later returning to the island in 1855, 1860, 1863, 1865, 1867 and 1871. Wishing to visit Madeira once more, he sailed in the steamer Liberia, which left the landing place (porto) of Liverpool bound for the island on 11 April 1874. The ship, however, was wrecked in the Bay of Biscay on the second or third day of the voyage, and there Lowe met his death, together with his wife Catarina Maria, whom he had married in 1828.
During his long residence in Madeira, Lowe gathered extremely important material for the study of the fauna and flora of the archipelago. The botanical material, which, fortunately for science, had remained in England, was divided after his death between the British Museum and Kew Gardens. Duplicates of many plants from Madeira and the Canary Islands collected by Lowe are held in the Imperial Garden of Petrograd, in Webb’s herbarium in Florence, and in that of De Candolle.
In 1858 Lowe visited the Canary Islands, returning there in 1861, and in 1864 and 1866 he visited the Cape Verde islands. From 1834 to 1848 he served as chaplain (capelão) of the British church in Rua dos Aranhas in Funchal.
He was a Master of Arts of the University of Cambridge and a corresponding member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and of the Zoological Society of London. After leaving for England in 1852, he was for some time chaplain at Lea, in the countship (condado) of Lincoln.
In the British cemetery in Rua do Dr. Vieira there is a modest gravestone surmounted by a cross, bearing an inscription that commemorates some events in the life of Richard Thomas Lowe, the foreigner who rendered the greatest scientific services to Madeira.
2Works and the Brown controversy
Among R. T. Lowe’s many works, we shall mention the following:
- A Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira (Trans. of the Zool. Soc., II, 3, 1837)
- Supplement to a Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira (Idem, III, I, 1839)
- A History of the Fishes of Madeira (London, 1843–1860, I vol.)
- Primitiae Faunae et Florae Maderae et Portus Sancti (Trans. Cambridge Phil. Soc. IV, 1, 1830)
- Novitiae Florae Maderensis (Idem, VI, 3, 1838)
- A Manual Flora of Madeira and the Adjacent Islands (London, 1868, vols I and II, part I)
- Florulae Salvagicae Tentamen (London, 1869, I sheet)
- Catalogus Molluscorum Pneumatoram Insularum Maderensium (Proceed. Zool. Soc. of London, 1854)
- and Protest against the ministration in Madeira of the rev. T. K. Brown..., with an appendix (Funchal, 1848).
In connection with the dispute between Lowe and Brown over the real or alleged violation of the laws and constitutions of the English Church in Madeira, the English Review of June 1848 published an article favourable to the former.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 07-
Richard Thomas Lowe, clergyman and naturalist, was born.
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The naturalist Ricardo Tomás Lowe resided in Madeira.
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Richard Thomas Lowe married Catarina Maria.
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Richard Thomas Lowe served as chaplain of the British church in Funchal.
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Controversy over the Rev. T. K. Brown's Anglican chaplaincy in Madeira produced publications, including Lowe's protest, 'The Madeira Chaplaincy' in London and a pamphlet on the English Church in Funchal.
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Lowe published A Manual Flora of Madeira.
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The naturalist Richard Thomas Lowe sailed from Liverpool on the Liberia, which sank in the Bay of Biscay, killing him and his wife.
Place
Places mentioned · 11
1 Abroad
- Bay of Biscay
France/Spain/Portugal. Where the Liberia sank, killing Lowe.
Where the Liberia sank, killing Lowe.
- British Cemetery
Funchal. Holds a memorial stone to Lowe.
The British (Protestant) cemetery in Funchal dates from a licence of 1761. The first burial ground stood where the Largo do Conde do Ribeiro Real is now, and the present cemetery was built in 1808 and enlarged in 1852 and 1889. It lies on Rua da Carreira, next to the new bishop's palace, and holds a memorial stone to the Reverend R. T. Lowe.
- Canary Islands
Spain. Islands Lowe visited in 1858 and 1861.
The Canary Islands are the archipelago neighbouring Madeira, with disputed accounts of their discovery. Tradition holds that their Béthencourt king sold them to Prince Henry in exchange for lands in Madeira. The Elucidário notes many contacts between the two archipelagos, including scientific visits, the Orfeão Madeirense's tour in May 1922 and the massacre of forty Jesuits in their waters.
- Cape Verde
Islands Lowe visited in 1864 and 1866.
Cape Verde is an archipelago and Portuguese colony that served as a place of exile and deportation for Madeirans, including liberals in the 1820s, protesters against the dairy decrees and the 1936 rioters. Lowe visited it in 1864 and 1866. It shares one flowering-plant species with Madeira.
- Funchal
City where Lowe served as chaplain.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Lea
United Kingdom. Lincolnshire parish where Lowe was chaplain after 1852.
Lincolnshire parish where Lowe was chaplain after 1852.
- Liverpool
United Kingdom. Port from which the Liberia sailed for Madeira in 1874.
English port, 1430 miles from Funchal, from which ships sailed to West Africa via Madeira; the Liberia sailed from there for Madeira in 1874. Robert McAndrew's work was published there, and its museum holds Madeiran coral specimens.
- Porto Santo
Covered in Lowe's Primitiae.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- Rua do Dr. Vieira
Funchal. Street of the British cemetery.
Rua do Dr. Vieira is a Funchal street, formerly Rua da Carreira, that now includes the old Rua de São Paulo. The British cemetery and the Utile Dulci lending library stood on it.
- Rua dos Aranhas
Funchal. Site of the British church where Lowe was chaplain.
Rua dos Aranhas is a Funchal street named after the Aranha family who lived there, and was formerly called Rua do Dr. Chaves. It contains the Casa de Dona Mécia and a surviving Gothic house of the Ornelas family. It was the site of the Anglican church opened in 1848, the Escola Normal and the Teatro Esperança, and the São Lázaro gate stood at its top until 1904.
- Savage Islands
Funchal · Selvagens. Subject of Lowe's Florulae Salvagicae Tentamen.
A small uninhabited island group, politically part of the Madeira archipelago. The Elucidário covers its geography, geology, fauna, ownership history and legends of hidden treasure, including Shackleton's treasure plans, and notes the annual hunting of shearwaters and rabbits. It is the only remaining home of the limpet Patella vulgata and was studied by naturalists such as Lowe and Garreta.
People
People mentioned · 05- Richard Thomas Lowe1802–1874
English clergyman and naturalist who studied Madeira's fauna and flora and was chaplain of the British church in Funchal (1834–48).
- Catarina Maria Lowed. 1874
Wife of R. T. Lowe, married in 1828, who died with him in the wreck of the Liberia.
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Botanist whose herbarium holds duplicates of Lowe's Madeiran and Canarian plants.
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English clergyman in Madeira whose ministry Lowe publicly protested against in 1848.
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Botanist whose herbarium in Florence holds duplicates of Lowe's plants.