Anthony Rowe

Biography

Rowe was the son of Sir Thomas Rowe of Muswell Hill in Middlesex by his wife Anne Langton. He was a descendant of William Rowe and was a cousin of Thomas Roe.

In the 1670s, Rowe became an associate of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and served as his adjutant during the Flanders campaign of 1678. In 1679 he was granted lease of a hearth tax tax farm for five years. He remained aligned to Monmouth and in 1683 he was publicly denied any association with the Rye House Plot. Rowe was briefly arrested during the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, but was soon released, and in March 1688 he was granted a general pardon by James II.

Rowe was a supporter of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and in 1689 he was appointed to superintend the collection of taxes in western England. The same year, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Penryn, appointed Clerk of the Green Cloth in the household of William III, and made a justice of the peace for Middlesex. During the Convention Parliament, he compiled and published a blacklist of those MPs who had voted that James II had not left the throne vacant during the Revolution, with the aim of influencing the subsequent election. In 1690, Rowe was returned for Mitchell. He then represented Stockbridge from November to December 1693, before sitting again for Mitchell from January 1701 to March 1701.

Marriage and issue

He married Mary Manley, a daughter of Robert Manley, of Stepney, Middlesex, a merchant, but died without male issue, leaving three daughters and co-heiresses:

Mary Rowe (Viscountess Hillsborough) (1683/4-1742), wife successively of Sir Edmund Denton, 1st Baronet, (1676-1714) of Hillesden, Buckinghamshire, MP, and of Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough (1693-1742)

Charlotte Rowe (d.1742), wife of Lt-Col. George Forrester, 5th Lord Forrester of Corstorphine

Arabella/Isabella Rowe, 3rd daughter, wife of John Cockburn (1679-1758) of Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland, MP.