His father was MP for Calne in 1614 and his uncle George Lowe, a London merchant, represented the town from 1625 to 1629.
He later claimed that he acted under duress, and that he was not party to the vote declaring the Parliamentarian members at Westminster to be traitors.
He was disabled from sitting at Westminster on 5 February 1644, but as a result of his voluntary and early surrender to Edward Massey, he was treated leniently by the committee for compounding and was fined at a tenth instead of a third of his estate.
Lowe died at the age of 88 according to his memorial in St Aldate's Church, Oxford, which has the inscription "he exerted himself for forty years, more or less, in the illustrious court of senators (commonly called Parliament) no less to the approbation of individuals than to the advantage of the public".
He bequeathed his houses in Oxford and Salisbury to his nephew Sir Edward Lowe, master in Chancery.