Sir William Lower (1570 – 12 April 1615)[1] was an English astronomer from the early telescopic period, and a Member of Parliament.
He was born in Cornwall, and after studying at Exeter College, Oxford, he married and settled in South-west Wales.
Lower suggested that the comet's orbit obeyed Kepler's laws (instead of being an atmospheric phenomenon or following a rectilinear path, as was generally thought at the time).
Using a telescope that had been provided by Harriot, Lower made a number of observations of the moon, and noted that its surface appeared irregular and "like a tart that my cooke made me last weeke".
[3][4][5] After Lower's death Penelope (née Perrot) married secondly Sir Robert Naunton, by whom she had a daughter Penelope, who married Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke.