His most prolific son was Mark Antony[7]  whose career became a jewel in Richard’s crown. Mark Antony opened several schools during his lifetime, and became skilled in the translation of ancient documents. He wrote a number of books and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries so that in the end he was very well known in Sussex. In 1846 he was one of the co-founders of the Sussex Archaeological Society, which Richard later joined. On the other hand, Richard’s last son, Matthew Henry[8]  the babe written in at the top of the tree, seems to have been somewhat of a disappointment. He married young, it seems, for money (none of the Lowers attended the wedding) and went on to marry twice more, apparently for the same reason. Though he lived a comfortable life, he never seems to have had a steady occupation.

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In 1838 Richard Lower handed the Muddles Green school over to his son Simon Peter and retired from teaching. He could afford to. In that year he surveyed and drew the Tithe Commutation Map for the parish of Warbleton and had in the pipeline similar maps for East Hoathly and Chiddingly, both of which he drew in 1839. If all three paid him at much the same rate as Chiddingly then he earned probably between £600 and £800 (£30,000 to $40,000 in modern terms.) In 1840 he drew the private map for Thomas Day Esquire already mentioned and between that and the map for Viscount Gage in 1853, almost certainly had other private commissions from which the final map has not survived. In 1844 he did a fourth Tithe Map, for Southover, the parish that is now Lewes’ southern suburb. It is not surprising that in official documents (e.g. marriage certificates) he was now described not as a teacher but as a surveyor, and it seems likely that he was not perhaps as poor as some of his poems suggest. With Matthew Henry’s marriage in 1845, he and Mary no longer had any children to support, whilst he could still count on his salary as the Assistant Overseer andhis commission as the Assessor and Collector of Land and Assessed Taxes. At any rate, when in 1846 he was required to put up a security for the honest performance of his duties as Chiddingly‘s Rates Collector, he was able to find the considerable sum demanded, namely £200.

From 1840 onwards, recording the Vestry Minutes took up much less of his time than hitherto, once problems left over from the Old Poor Law had been cleared away, for the Vestry now had little to do beyond the annual elections of officers and the declarations of the Poor and Highway Rates. In November 1850 it discussed an encroachment by the Funnells of Park Farm on the road near Muddles Green and having received no satisfaction from them by the following March decided to take the matter to the Magistrates. Richard was directed to prepare the necessary papers, draw a supporting map, and contact the agent to the farm’s owner, Lord Amherst of Aracan.