[Personal knowledge, autobiographical details in the pamphlets mentioned above, and information supplied by Sydenham Rowell, esq. For his principal papers see Roy. Soc. Cat. of Scientific Papers; Athenæum, 6 Feb. 1892.]
ROWLAND. [See also Rowlands.]
ROWLAND, DANIEL (1778–1859), antiquary, born at Shrewsbury on 11 July 1778, was second surviving son of John Rowland or Rowlands (d. 1815), rector of Llangeitho, Cardiganshire, and incumbent of Clive, Shropshire, by Mary, daughter of William Gorsuch, vicar of the Abbey parish, Shrewsbury. His paternal grandfather was Daniel Rowlands [q. v.] William Gorsuch Rowland (d. 1851), his eldest brother, was prebendary of Lichfield and incumbent of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury; he spent much money in beautifying his church, more especially by the gift of some fine stained-glass windows.
Daniel Rowland, after being educated at Shrewsbury, practised for some years as a barrister in London. He subsequently removed to Frant in Sussex, where he built Saxonbury Lodge in mediæval style (Lower, Sussex, i. 192). He devoted his leisure to literature, the fine arts, and philanthropy. At Shrewsbury he built and endowed in 1853, at a cost of over 4,000l., the Hospital of the Holy Cross, for five poor women. He was high sheriff of Sussex in 1824. In 1846 he returned to London, settling at 28 Grosvenor Place. He died at Clifton on 20 Oct. 1859, and was buried in the crypt of the chapel of the Foundling Hospital, Guildford Street, London, of which he had been a governor. He married, in 1818, Katherine Erskine, daughter of Pelham Maitland, esq., of Belmont, near Edinburgh. She died on 10 Dec. 1829, without surviving issue.
A fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, he printed in 1830, for private circulation, in one large folio volume, an ‘Historical and Genealogical Account of the Noble Family of Nevill, particularly the House of Abergavenny,’ with appendix and four genealogical tables. The plates are not so well executed as the letterpress. He also edited G. B. Blakeway's ‘Sheriffs of Shropshire,’ bringing the work down to 1830, and privately printing it in 1831.
[Gent. Mag. 1860, i. 85, 86; Ann. Reg. 1859, App. to Chron. p. 478; Martin's Privately Printed Books, pp. 399, 400; Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit. ii. 1882; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
ROWLAND, DAVID (fl. 1569–1586), author, was a native of Anglesey. He entered St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, and studied logic and grammar, without, however, taking a degree. On leaving the university he became tutor to the son of the Earl of Lennox, and with him travelled through France and Spain, thus obtaining some knowledge of modern languages. After his return he became a teacher of Greek and Latin in London.
In 1569 he published ‘An Epytaphe of my Lorde of Pembroke,’ licensed to Thomas Colwell (Arber, Stationers' Register). For the use of his pupils he also wrote ‘A Comfortable Aid for Scholers,’ London, 1578, 8vo, a collection of various renderings of English phrases in Latin. But his chief work was the translation of the first part of Mendoza's ‘Lazarillo de Tormes,’ which he published under the title of ‘The Pleasant History of Lazarillo de Tormes.’ It appeared in 1576, being printed by Henry Bynneman, with a dedication to Sir Thomas Gresham [q. v.], but it had apparently been licensed as early as 1568 to Colwell. No copy of the first edition is extant. Another edition of 1586, London, 8vo, contains laudatory verses by George Turberville [q. v.] The Spanish original was imperfect, having been expurgated by the inquisition. The translation ran through several editions, the latest being that of 1677, which was supplemented by a translation of the second part of the history by James Blakeston.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 528; Tanner's Bibliotheca Brit. p. 645; Collier's Bibl. Cat. of Early English Lit. ii. 275; Hazlitt's Handbook, pp. 387–8, and Collections, i. 492, iii. 60, 116, iv. 30; Arber's Transcript of Stationers' Reg. passim.]
ROWLAND, JOHN (1606–1660), writer against Milton, born in Bedfordshire in 1606, was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, matriculating in November 1621 and graduating B.A. on 28 Nov. 1622, M.A. on 28 March 1626 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) He claims to have been a friend of Sir Robert Cotton, and to have been with him at his death in 1631 (cf. Narrative of Gondomar, 1659, dedicatory epistle). On 8 June 1634 he became rector of Foot's Cray in Kent (Rymer, Fœdera, xix. 615). But on the outbreak of the civil war he joined the royalist army as chaplain to Sir Jacob Astley's regiment (State Papers, Dom. Car. I, cccclxxvii. No. 59, 28 Feb. 1640–1). His living was accordingly sequestered to one Alexander Hames, who in May 1646 was called before the committee for plundered ministers for failing to pay ‘fifths’ to Rowland's wife and children (Addit. MS. 15670, ff. 267, 423). It is possible that Rowland subsequently took refuge in the Netherlands.
