ohn Low(e) was the 58th Bishop of Rochester from 1444 to 1467.
He
was connected with the Lowe family in Lindridge, Worcestershire where his brother
may have been sheriff (this is to be confirmed).
He became an
Augustinian hermit and studied at Droitwich.
He seems to have been at Oxford, and was created a Doctor there. He came to London and,
in 1428, was Prior of the house of his order and provincial for England. About 1432 he was confessor to Henry VI. He became Bishop
of St. Asaph in 1433 until coming to Rochester in October 1444. Before 1459 he built a new palace, having reached an agreement with
the citizens of Rochester about his jurisdiction in the town. He was a Yorkist and joined the forces of Richard Neville Earl of Warwick
(the kingmaker) at Rochester in 1460 and went to Dunstable. Sent as an emissary to King Henry VI in Northampton he did not, in fact,
see the king. However, in the same year, he was one of a group sent to enquire of Edward of York (later Edward IV) about his intentions
with regard to the crown.
He was buried in 1467 on the north side of Rochester Cathedral
and there is an altar monument to him with an inscription.
