Lowndes, Rawlins (January 1721 - Aug. 24, 1800), president of South Carolina and leader in opposing the adoption of the federal Constitution, was born in St. Kitts, British West Indies. He was the grandson of Charles Lowndes who was probably a younger brother of Richard Lowndes of Cheshire, England, an ancestor of Lloyd Lowndes [q.v.]. He was the son of Charles Lowndes who emigrated, first, to St. Kitts, where he married Ruth, the daughter of Henry Rawlins, an influential planter. In 1730, on account of financial difficulties, the family went to Charleston, S. C., where the father died when Rawlins was about fourteen years old. The widow returned to St. Kitts, leaving her son in the care of Robert Hall, provost-marshal of the colony, whose careful guidance and extensive library served admirably for his education at law. The youth did not reach his majority before his guardian died, in 1740, but nevertheless he was allowed to fill Hall's position temporarily and later was permanently appointed provost-marshal. In 1754 he resigned this position to practise law. In 1749 he had been elected to the legislature from St. Paul's Parish, and from 1751 until the Revolution he almost continuously represented St. Bartholomew's in that body, becoming speaker of the lower house, from 1763 to 1765, and, again, from 1772 to 1775. In 1770 he was chairman of a committee that reported a plan to establish eight free schools for the newly settled districts as well as to found a provincial college (Commons House Journal, Mar. 1, 1770). He made the motion, passed unanimously, to erect a statute of William Pitt in Charleston as a memorial to his efforts to obtain the repeal of the Stamp Act. In 1766 he was appointed associate judge of the court of common pleas and, in that capacity, espoused provincial and popular rights. He refused to enforce the use of stamp paper, defied the chief justice on the bench (Council Journal, Feb. 3, 1772), and, in a habeas corpus case of 1773, denied the right of the royal council to act as an upper house of assembly (McCrady, Royal Government, post, pp. 717-21). Not long afterward he was removed from the bench (Commons House Journal, Oct. 24, 1773).

As a conservative in temperament and conviction he opposed rebellion or separation from the Mother Country and deplored the trend of events after the break. Yet he continued to be bound by his devotion to his province and to the rights of her representative government. When the provincial congress was considering the appointment of delegates to the First Continental Congress, he favored sending delegates with strictly limited powers, who should be allowed to support only measures to obtain the repeal of Parliament's oppressive acts and the redress of grievances. In this way he hoped to place his colony in opposition to the more radical northern colonies, particularly in New England, which favored independence. When the South Carolina convention discussed granting money to continue the "American Association," he advised caution, and upheld the right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies. St. Bartholomew's sent him to both the provincial congresses of 1775, from which he was chosen a member of the Council of Safety, where he opposed the confiscation of the property of Loyalists leaving the colony. He was one of the committee of eleven selected to form a new constitution for the colony, although he was unfavorable to the idea, and, after the new government was established in 1776, was made a member of the legislative council. When, in 1778, radical changes were proposed in the constitution, the church, and the legislature, he opposed them vigorously, yet he accepted the presidency of the colony when John Rutledge vetoed the measures and resigned. His position weighed heavily upon him, the colony was threatened with a British attack, and he had personal griefs to occupy his attention. His health was affected, he had lost one son, and another was so seriously ill that he later died. Moreover dissatisfaction with his administration broke out in open strife. He asked Christopher Gadsden [q.v.], the vice-president, to act for him but with characteristic vigor continued his own activities by proposing strong measures to thwart the attack, which, however, did not occur during his administration. He declined reelection in 1779 and was the last president of South Carolina, for his successor took the title of governor. When the British captured Charleston in 1779 and overran the state, he quietly abandoned the struggle, retired to his plantation, and seems to have accepted British protection, though this is a matter of dispute.

After the end of the war he represented Charleston in the legislature. In the committee of the whole he opposed the ratification of the Constitution, though his constituents favored it, basing his opposition on the failure of that document adequately to guard the rights of minorities, on the excessive power given the Senate, and on the limitation of slave trade to twenty years. He closed his objections with the statement that he wished no other epitaph than, "Here lies the man that opposed the constitution, because it was ruinous to the liberty of America" (Jonathan Elliot, The Debates of the Several State Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 2 ed., vol. IV, 1836, p. 298). This was his last public appearance, for, though he was elected to the constitutional convention, he did not serve. He was married, on Aug. 15, 1748, to Amarinthia Elliott of Rantoules, Stone River, who died in January 1750. The following year, on Dec. 23, he celebrated his marriage to Mary Cartwright of Charleston, who bore him four daughters and three sons. Bereaved of his second wife in 1770, he married, in January 1773, Sarah Jones of Georgia, a girl of sixteen, whose third and youngest child was William Lowndes [q.v.].