{"id":2155,"date":"2022-05-29T13:27:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T13:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=2155"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:24:21","slug":"wicked-jimmys-ghost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/29\/wicked-jimmys-ghost\/","title":{"rendered":"Wicked Jimmy&#8217;s ghost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Wicked Jimmy\u2019s ghost : James Lowther, the first Earl of Lonsdale, was feared and hated in life. And like all heavy-duty villains, those feelings didn\u2019t end when he died, aged 66, in 1802.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His name lives on as a byword for political corruption. He was also renowned as a merciless bully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there have always been folk who feared he didn\u2019t take death lying down!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A little background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Wicked Jimmy Lowther has made a couple of appearances already on <em>Cumbrian Characters<\/em>. Firstly in this post on the Westmorland Militia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-cumbrian-characters wp-block-embed-cumbrian-characters\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"juNJuxsveJ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/03\/wicked-jimmy-westmorland-militia\/\">Wicked Jimmy and the Westmorland Militia<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Wicked Jimmy and the Westmorland Militia&#8221; &#8212; Cumbrian Characters\" src=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/03\/wicked-jimmy-westmorland-militia\/embed\/#?secret=GeVnF6QYnx#?secret=juNJuxsveJ\" data-secret=\"juNJuxsveJ\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And secondly, in this post on how he tried to steal the lands of Inglewood Forest (between Penrith and Carlisle) in an outrageous land grab from the Duke of Portland<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-cumbrian-characters wp-block-embed-cumbrian-characters\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"JRhwee9yvF\"><a href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/05\/inglewood-forest-lowther-land-grab\/\">Inglewood Forest: Lowther land grab<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Inglewood Forest: Lowther land grab&#8221; &#8212; Cumbrian Characters\" src=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/05\/inglewood-forest-lowther-land-grab\/embed\/#?secret=6qjYSt1VGk#?secret=JRhwee9yvF\" data-secret=\"JRhwee9yvF\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The British Museum owns a number of contemporary cartoons by satirists that feature Wicked Jimmy Lowther. For instance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishmuseum.org\/collection\/object\/P_1868-0808-5539\">this one<\/a>\u00a0is about him creating 1,400 tame voters to win a seat in Carlisle in the 1786 election. This became known as the mushroom election (because the number of voters mushroomed). Hence the \u2018Earl of Toadstool\u2019 caption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A gruesome legend<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there is the weird story of (one of) his mistress(es). Wicked Jimmy Lowther had married the Earl of Bute\u2019s daughter, Mary Crichton-Stuart, in 1761. But he was far from monogamous. The story goes that he fell in love with the daughter of one of his tenants and made her his mistress. She died young, but he couldn\u2019t bear to lose her. So he kept her body, lying in bed, until the smell became unbearable. He than had her placed in a glass coffin, which he kept some weeks further, before she was finally given a decent burial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether this story is true or not is anyone\u2019s guess. For sure, there was no shortage of people happy to make up bad stories about him if not. And this one seems to have stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wicked Jimmy\u2019s ghost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One legend has it that Wicked Jimmy\u2019s ghost can be seen at Lowther Castle whenever a full moon coincides with the anniversary of his death, May 24. In life, he loved driving a carriage at break-neck speed \u2013 a pleasure he is said to repeat with a ghost carriage and horses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that is perhaps a relatively recent story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For in 1857 \u2013 when some folk would have had first-hand experience\/memories of Wicked Jimmy \u2013 a slightly different one was told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Boggles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeremiah Sullivan, in his book <em>Cumberland and Westmorland, Ancient and Modern<\/em>, includes the topic of \u2018boggles\u2019. Boggles are more than \u2018just ghosts\u2019 \u2013 the word covers all sorts of apparitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Westmorland never produced a more famous boggle\u2014infamous as a man, famous as a boggle\u2014than Jemmy Lowther, well known, for want of a more appropriate name, as the &#8220;bad Lord Lonsdale.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>In modern times, when the personality of the boggles is known, it appears that most of them are, like Jemmy Lowther, individuals who enjoyed an unenviable notoriety while living, and for whom there is no sympathy after death.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">No peace from the wicked<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sullivan, understandably relishing a good yarn (who doesn\u2019t?!) continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>(He) became a still greater terror to the country after death, than he had even been during his life. He was with difficulty buried; and whilst the clergyman was praying over him, he very nearly knocked the reverend gentleman from his desk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Sullivan continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>When placed in the grave, the power of creating alarm was not interred with his bones. There were disturbances in the (Lowther) Hall, noises in the stables ; neither men nor animals were suffered to rest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">However:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Jemmy&#8217;s &#8221; coach and six&#8221; is still remembered and spoken of, from which we are probably to understand that he produced a noise, as boggles frequently do, like an equipage of this description. <strong>There is nothing said of his shape, or whether he ever appeared at all ; but it is certain he made himself audible<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And Jeremiah Sullivan records that Wicked Jimmy\u2019s ghost was, after a \u2018long siege,\u2019 dealt with by an un-named Catholic priest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>the priest read on until he fully overpowered the tyrant, and <strong><em>laid <\/em>him under a large rock called Wallow Crag, and laid him for ever<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So either Wicked Jimmy\u2019s ghost never rode through the Lowther estate. Or if it did, it was heard not seen. And the priest dealt with it once and for all\u2026 Assuming Wicked Jimmy\u2019s ghost wasn\u2019t just pretending to have been defeated!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>The main picture is a model of James Lowther which stands in a corridor at the county archives, in Carlisle<\/strong><\/li><li>Wicked Jimmy may well crop up in future posts, as well as the two older ones mentioned in this one. Use the magnifying glass above this article to check.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wicked Jimmy\u2019s ghost : James Lowther, the first Earl of Lonsdale, was feared and hated in life. And like all heavy-duty villains, those feelings didn\u2019t end when he died, aged 66, in 1802. His name lives on as a byword for political corruption. He was also renowned as a merciless bully. And there have always [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-2155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cumbria-history","tag-lowther"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wicked Jimmy&#039;s ghost - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wicked Jimmy&#039;s ghost : There have always been folk who feared James Lowther, the first Earl of Lonsdale, didn\u2019t take death lying down!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/29\/wicked-jimmys-ghost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wicked Jimmy&#039;s ghost - 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