took holy orders, and was presented on 2 Oct. 1696 to the living of Llanidan, to which three small chapels were attached. He devoted himself to the investigation of stone circles, cromlechs, and other prehistoric remains, especially those of his native county, his hypothesis being that Anglesey was the ancient metropolitan seat of the Druids. His chief work was ‘Mona Antiqua Restaurata, an Archæological Discourse on the Antiquities Natural and Historical of the Island’ (Dublin, 1723, 4to). A second edition was issued, London, 1766, 4to, and a supplement with topographical details in 1775.
Rowlands also wrote a ‘Treatise on Geology’ and ‘Idea Agriculturæ: the Principles of Vegetation asserted and defended. An Essay on Husbandry,’ &c., founded on his own close personal observations in 1704, Dublin, 1764, 8vo. Rowlands left in manuscript a parochial history of Anglesey, written in Latin and entitled ‘Antiquitates Parochiales;’ it was partly translated in the ‘Cambro Briton,’ and also published in the original Latin, with an English version, in vols. i.–iv. of the ‘Archæologia Cambrensis.’ The hundred of Menai only was completed.
Although a polished writer and an excellent scholar, Rowlands never travelled further from home than Shrewsbury, some have even said Conway. He died on 21 Nov. 1723, and is buried at Llanedwen church. By his wife, Elizabeth Nicholas, Rowlands left two daughters and three sons.
[Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 462; Gorton's Biogr. Dict. vol. iii.; Pennant's Tours in Wales, ed. Rhys, iii. 1–15; Llwyd's Hist. of Anglesey, 1833, p. 373; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. v. 82, 3rd ser. iii. 387, 513; Works above mentioned; Archæologia Cambrensis, i. 126, 305, 389; Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography, p. 335.]
ROWLANDS alias VERSTEGEN, RICHARD (fl. 1565–1620), antiquary, born in the parish of St. Catherine, near the Tower of London, was grandson of Theodore Roland Verstegen, of an ancient Dutch family which was driven from Gelderland to England about 1500. His father was a cooper. Rowlands, after a good education, was entered at Christ Church, Oxford, in the beginning of 1565 as ‘Richard Rowlands, servant to Mr. Barnard’ (Oxf. Univ. Reg. Oxf. Hist. Soc. II. ii. 14). A zealous catholic, he declined the tests essential to a degree, and left the university without one. While there, however, he distinguished himself by his study of early English history, and began to learn Anglo-Saxon. In 1576 he published a translation from the German, entitled ‘The Post of the World, wherin is contayned the antiquities and originall of the most famous cities in Europe,’ London, by Thomas East, 12mo, with a dedication to Sir Thomas Gresham [q. v.], who was then living as royal agent at Antwerp. Rowlands soon after removed to that town, dropped his English name, and resumed the paternal Verstegen. He set up a printing press (Hazlitt, Collections, ii. 70), wrote books, and, being an artist of no mean skill, engraved some of the cuts for them himself. He also acted as agent for the transmission of catholic literature (some of which he printed), and letters to and from England, Spain, Rome, and the Netherlands. He was in frequent correspondence with Cardinal Allen and Robert Parsons, and for a time in their pay (Strype, Annals, iv. 207; Cal. Hatfield MSS. v. 26).
About 1587 Rowlands was living in Paris, where his narrative of Elizabeth's treatment of the catholics in England in his ‘Theatrum Crudelitatum Hæreticorum nostri Temporis,’ Antwerp, 1587, 4to (translated into French, Antwerp, 1588, 4to), excited the attention of the English ambassador, and he was thrown into prison. Upon his release he returned to Antwerp and reprinted the book in 1588 (another edition, 1592). He was back in France in 1595 on his way to Spain, where he had an interview with Philip, and spent some time at the catholic college at Seville. At the end of the same year he was once more in Antwerp, living ‘near the bridge of the tapestry makers,’ and interpreting English letters for the postmaster (Cal. Hatfield MSS. v. 225). He had then married a lady who is described as ‘doing much to keep up his credit’ (Wadsworth, English Spanish Pilgrims, ii. 67). He corresponded with Sir R. Cotton up to 1617, and was still living in Antwerp in 1620.
Rowlands's other works were published under the name or initials of Richard Verstegen. The most interesting of them was ‘Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning the English Nation,’ Antwerp, 1605, 4to, reprinted in London, 1673, 8vo; in this work, dedicated to James I, Verstegen protests his English birth. He gives a summary of the early invasions of Great Britain, the formation of its languages, surnames, and other matters, and exhibits his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon. He also published:
- ‘Odes in Imitation of the Seaven Penitential Psalms,’ Antwerp, 1601, 8vo.
- ‘A Dialogue on Dying well,’ translated from the Italian of Dom Peter of Lucca, Antwerp, 1603.
- ‘Sundry Successive Regal Governments of England, in
