Mark Antony Lower

Mark Antony Lower F.S.A. M.A. (14 July 1813 – 22 March 1876) was a Sussex historian and schoolteacher who founded the Sussex Archaeological Society. An anti-Catholic propagandist, Lower is believed to have started the "cult of the Sussex Martyrs", of Richard Lower, a schoolmaster, and his wife in Chiddingly. Richard and Mary (née Oxley) gave Lower a good education. He worked first at his sister's school in East Hoathly, before further extending the family's interests in local education with a school at Alfriston under his control. Within three years, however, he left to establish another school in Lewes in Sussex in 1835.

He married Mercy Holman in 1835 when his school had moved to St. Anne's House in Lewes High Street. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1844. His establishment of the Sussex Archaeological Society with J. H. Hurdis in 1846 established Lower as a well-regarded notable antiquarian. His publication of The Sussex Martyrs, their Examinations and Cruel Burnings in the time of Queen Mary... in 1851 together with an etching by James Henry Hurdis of Richard Woodman and nine other martyrs is credited with establishing the "cult of the Sussex Martyrs". However, it is noted that his Sussex Martyrs was really a re-publication of John Foxe's account in his Book of Martyrs.

Lower published numerous articles for the Sussex Archaeological Society and he was employed for a number of years as a secretary. He published Patronymica Britannica: A Dictionary of the Family Names of the United Kingdom in 1860 and The Worthies of Sussex in 1865. in Enfield. He was buried in St Anne's Church in Lewes.

Works English surnames, 1842 The Curiosities of Heraldry, 1845 Chronicles of Pevensey, 1846 Sussex Archaeological Society, various publications, 1846– The Sussex Martyrs, their Examinations and Cruel Burnings in the time of Queen Mary, comprising the interesting personal narrative of Richard Woodman, &c. &c., 1852 Patronymica Britannica, 1860 (A dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom) A Compendious History of Sussex,1870 Historical and genealogical notices of the Pelham family, 1873