Lowndes, Rawlins

Lowndes, Rawlins (1721-1800) President of South Carolina: Lowndes was elected to the colonial legislature consistently between 1749 and 1775, and twice served as Speaker. He refused to enforce the use of stamped paper when he served as associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1766. Lowndes was one of the elite guiding South Carolina's revolutionary government, being a member of both Provincial Congresses, both Councils of Safety, and the First and Second General Assemblies. He wrote the colony's temporary constitution with ten other men in 1776, and disapproved of the more liberal 1778 constitution, but eventually signed it into law. Lowndes became South Carolina's last president in 1778, since his successor was given the title of governor. After the Revolutionary War, Lowndes represented St. Philip and St. Michael parishes from 1787 to 1790.