Rawlins Lowndes (January 6, 1721 – August 24, 1800) was an American lawyer, planter and politician who became involved in the patriot cause after his election to South Carolina's legislature, although he opposed independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

His success as a lawyer, and through favorable marriages discussed below, led him to acquire large plantations on the Ashley, Combahee and Santee Rivers, which he farmed using enslaved labor.

Nonetheless, upon receiving a letter from Attorney General Simpson (who shortly thereafter returned to England), the governor removed Lowndes from his judicial office in early 1775.

Nonetheless, when Judge Gordeon was shortly thereafter reassigned to Jamaica, Lowndes received an appointment as South Carolina's Chief Justice.

In June 1775, the Provincial Congresses appointed Lowndes to the Committee of Safety together with Henry Laurens, Charles Pinckney and ten other men.

In September, 1775, the last royal governor Lord William Campbell, fled to a warship in the harbor after refusing to recognize the provincial Congress, which declared the colony's independence 6 months later, in March 1776.

Despite his involvement in challenging increasingly harsh British measures leading up to the American Revolution, Lowndes opposed armed rebellion and independence from Britain.

By this time, the conflict had reached South Carolina (and Lowndes' plantations had been raided, once causing him to yoke oxen to his carriage, all his horses having been carried off).

His first marriage, on August 15, 1748, was to Amarinthia Elliott, daughter of Thomas Elliot of Rantoules plantation on the Stono River, but she died in January 1750.