William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, PC, FRS (21 July 1787 – 4 March 1872), styled Viscount Lowther between 1807 and 1844, was a British Tory politician.
Lord Lonsdale never married, but acknowledged three illegitimate children born to opera singers or dancers; he left them substantial sums in his will. His daughter with Caroline Saintfal, Marie Caroline, was born in Paris in 1818.[10] Another daughter born the same year, Frances ("Fanny") Lowther (1818–1890), was registered as the daughter of "Narcisse Chassepomp", in fact Pierre-Narcisse Chaspoux, formerly a dancer at the Paris Opera and then in London, who in 1821 gave birth to the artist Charles Meryon.[11] Frances (Fanny) married Henry Broadwood MP (1793–1878, of the piano-making family), and was the mother of Brig-Gen. Arthur Broadwood (1848–1928). With Emilia Cresotti, an Italian opera singer, he fathered Francis William Lowther (1841–1908), who was the father of Claude Lowther MP and Toupie Lowther.[12][13]
He died in his London house at 15 Carlton House Terrace on 4 March 1872, aged 84, and was succeeded in the earldom and to Lowther Castle by his nephew, Henry.[1] On the day he died he waited in his carriage outside a London auction house, while an agent bid on his behalf on some lots of porcelain.[14] Of an estate valued at £700,000 (without the entailed land), Francis William and Fanny were bequeathed £125,000 each, and Francis's son £25,000.[15]
From 1842 until his death he gathered a remarkable collection of ancient works of art at his enormous country seat, Lowther Castle, composed of more than 100 pieces of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and mostly Roman sculpture, whose selection reflected the spirit of the collections of the ‘Golden Age of Dilettantism’ during the Victorian era.[16]
