For other persons named William Lowndes, see William Lowndes.
William Jones Lowndes (1782–1822) was an American lawyer, planter, and statesman from South Carolina who was the son of Rawlins Lowndes, an American Revolutionary War leader from South Carolina. He married Elizabeth Pinckney, daughter of Federalist leader Thomas Pinckney, and served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1804 to 1808. He represented South Carolina in the U.S. Congress from 1811 to May 8, 1822, when he resigned. He was for four years Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He worked to achieve a compromise on sectional issues like tariffs and slavery, and assisted in the creation of the second national bank. President James Madison offered Lowndes the post of Secretary of the Treasury in 1816, but Lowndes declined the post and Madison appointed William Harris Crawford. Lowndes was nominated in 1821 by the South Carolina legislature as a presidential candidate for the election of 1824, but died of illness on October 27, 1822, while en route to England, and was buried at sea.
Lowndesville, South Carolina; Lowndes County, Mississippi; Lowndes County, Georgia; and Lowndes County, Alabama are named in his honor.