Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rowlands, Henry (1655-1723)
ROWLANDS, HENRY (1655–1723), divine and antiquary, son of William Rowlands, of Plas Gwyn, Llanedwen, Anglesey, by his wife Maud, daughter of Edward Wynne of Penhesgyn, was born in 1655 at Plas Gwyn, the seat of the Rowlands family, which was purchased in 1600 by the antiquary's great-great-granduncle, Henry Rowlands [q. v.], bishop of Bangor.
Henry received a good classical education, 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.]