Jolliffe or Joliffe Lownes (died 1627) was an English apothecary who served the royal family.
Career Lownes married Maria Peyton in 1612, a daughter of a London merchant Henry Peyton. She was a sister of Sir Walter Peyton of Sutton Coldfield, an adventurer with the English East India Company who served as factor (in 1614) and subsequently captain or commander (1616) of the Expedition, sailing to Bantam (Banten) and Tecoe on Java. Peyton wrote a report on the prospects for setting up a trading on post on the "river Sindus" (Indus). Visitation of the county of Warwick (London, 1877), pp. 379–380: W. Nöel Saintsbury, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, East Indies, China, and Japan, 1513–1616 (London: HMSO, 1862), p. 305.
Lownes was apothecary to Prince Charles. Lownes had professional difficulties in February 1616 when a supplier, Michael Eason, was found to be supplying inferior materials.Elizabeth Lane Furdell, The Royal Doctors, 1485-1714: Medical Personnel at the Tudor and Stuart Courts (New York, 2001), p. 124. Eason had sold Lownes "defective Apothecarie wares" which were "unwholesome for a man's body".John Benjamin Heath, Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London (London, 1829), p. 92.
A bill from 1619 details perfumes, rose water, lemon pill, sweet powder and damask powder, supplied to Prince Charles' servants, barber, and barge men.HMC Laing Manuscripts, vol. 1 (London, 1914), pp. 152-3. The bills were checked and certified by the Prince's chamberlain Robert Cary and the physician John Craig, and another bill presented in 1619 was countersigned by Matthew Lister a physician who served Anne of Denmark.Puttick and Simpson, Catalogue of a Collection of Highly Curious Autograph Letters and Historical Documents (London, 1866), p. 14 no. 125.
A bill presented in 1622 includes the perfuming of rooms at Nonsuch Palace and Denmark House, now known as Somerset House. This bill is also for Prince Charles, not King James.Leslie Gerald Matthews, The antiques of perfume (London: Bell, 1973), p. 17: George Manners, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries (January 1870), pp. 435-7 Lownes also received an allowance for travel and lodging in the Prince's service, of £5 annually, paid by Adam Newton.HMC Laing Manuscripts, vol. 1 (London, 1914), p. 158 (EUL La. II 63.7).
As apothecary to Prince Charles, Lownes sailed to Spain in 1623 during the visit known as the Spanish Match. He was appointed apothecary to Charles as King on 4 June 1625.REED Online: Sir John Oglander's List
After Lownes died in 1627 his post was given to John Wolfgang Rumler.Elizabeth Lane Furdell, The Royal Doctors, 1485-1714: Medical Personnel at the Tudor and Stuart Courts (New York, 2001), p. 125. His daughter Martha Lownes married William Weeley of Weeley.
References
External links 'Scent bottle and account of the Prince's Apothecary', National Galleries of Scotland Lowne's bill transcribed in the HMC Calendar of Laing Manuscripts at Edinburgh University