John Rowe

son of Joh. Rowe of Crediton in Devonshire, was born there, or at least in that County, entred a Batler in New Inn in the beginning of 1642 aged 15 years, but being soon after taken thence, because the City of Oxon was garrison’d for his Majesties use, and the said Inn made a Mint-house, his friends sent him to Cambridge. where taking the degree of Bach. of Arts, retired to Oxon in 1648, to get preferment by the Visitation then and there made by order of Parliament. So that setling himself in that Inn againe, was incorporated in the same degree in the beginning of Dec. and on the 12 of the said month was admitted M. of Arts, as a Member of the said Inn or Hall, and much about the same time was put in Fellow of Corp. Ch. Coll. in a Lincolnshire place by the Visitors then sitting in Oxon. Afterwards he was Lecturer at Witney in Oxfordshire, where his Sermons were much frequented by persons of the Presbyterian persuasion; but leaving his fellowship soon after, he became preacher at Tiverton in his own Country for a time, and as a Minister of Devonshire he was appointed an Assistant to the Commissioners thereof, for the ejection of such that were then called scandalous, ignorant and insufficient Ministers and School Masters. Thence, upon the death of Will. Strong an. 1654, he was called to succeed him as preacher in St. Peters, commonly called the Abbey Church within the City of Westminster: At which place his Sermons being constant, and much taking with the men of those times, he was frequented by the chiefest of the Quakers, to the conversion, as tis said, of some. On the 14 of March 1659 he was appointed by Act of Parl. one of the Approvers of Ministers according to the Presbyterian way, but the vigour of that Act soon after ceasing, and he, after his Majesties restauration, being deprived for want of Conformity, he set up a privat meeting, in the parish (I think) of S. Andrew in Holborn near London, where he was assisted by Theoph. Gale. His works are these,

Tragi-Comoedia. A relation of the strange and wonderful hand of God, discovered at Witney, in the Comedy acted on the 3. Feb. 1652. Oxon. 1653. qu. The said Comedy was acted by young men of the Country in an old upper room in a public Inn there, but the floor falling under them, in the middle of Play, some were slain and many hurt.

Three Sermons preached on that occasion, on Rom. 1. 18.—Printed with the Relation. In which Sermons the author takes great liberty in speaking against Plays and the Actors of them.

Several other Sermons as (1) Mans duty in magnifying Gods work, Sermon on a public day of Thanksgiving, before the Parliament, 8. oct. 1656, on Job 36.24.25. Lond. 1657. qu. The said Thanksgiving was celebrated for the great victory obtained against the Spanish West-India Fleet. (2) The Saints temptations; wherein the nature, kinds, occasion of temptation, and the duty of the Saints under temptation, are laid forth. As also the Saints fence, &c. in Sermons. Lond. 1674 oct. (3) Emanuel or the Love of Christ, explicated and applied in his incarnation, being made under the Law, and his satisfaction, in 30 Sermons. Lond. 1680. Published by Sam. Lee somtimes Fellow of Wadham Coll. He also preached a Sermon at the interment of Joh. Bradshaw (President of the H. Court of Justice that condemned K. Ch. 1. to die) in the Abbey Ch. at West. 22. of Nov. 1659, on Isay 57.1. but whether it was ever printed I cannot tell. Sure ’tis, that he took great Liberty in speaking much to the honor and praise of that monster of men.

Heavenly mindedness and earthly mindedness, in two parts. Lond. 1672. in tw. with an Appendix of laying hold on eternal life. He also the said Jo. Rowe collected most of the materials of his Fathers life entit. The life and death of John Rowe of Crediton in Devonshire . Lond. 1673. in tw. and was one of the three (Thom. Manton and George Griffith being the other two) who published Thirty and one select sermons preached on several occasions. Lond. 1656. written by Will. Strong sometimes preacher in the Ab. Ch. at Westm. He also left behind him at the time of his death, several things fit for the press, as (1) The love of Christ in his intercession. (2) A discourse concerning the person and office of the holy spirit. (3) A discourse &c. of the Trinity, (4) Sermons upon the first eighteen verses of the first Chapt. of the Gosp. of S. John, and also upon the 15 chap. All which may be published hereafter. He died in, or near to,1677. Greys-inn-lane in Holbourne, in sixteen hundred seventy and seven: whereupon his body was conveyed to the burial place joyning to the New Artillery Garden and Bunhill fields, near London, and there buried in the presence of very many persons of his perswasion, towards the East end of that place. Soon after was erected over his grave an Altar-monument of a brick foundation, covered with a plank of marble of a brown colour, with this inscription engraven thereon. Here lyeth the body of John Rowe, sometimes preacher in the Abbey at Westminster, who died Oct. XII. in the 52 year of his age, an. 1677. I find one John Row to have published Institutiones Linguae Ebraicae. Amst. 1649 in tw. but he must not be understood to be the same with the former because he was a Schoolmaster in Scotland, and afterwards an Independent Minister in Aberdene, Principal of the Kings Coll. there, an. 1652 and Primarius of that University. Another John Rowe is now of the Middle Temple, and did lately publish Judge Will. Dallisons book of Reports, &c.