ROWLANDS, Henry (1550/1-1616)

Rowlands’ family claimed descent from the pre-conquest chieftain Rhirid Flaidd, lord of Penllyn. Their main estate, at Meyllteyrn at the western end of Caernarvonshire’s Llŷn peninsula, was of sufficient substance that the bishop’s father styled himself an esquire, and served as a Caernarvonshire magistrate from 1575 until his death.19 Griffith, 269; JPs in Wales and Monm. 19-21; PROB 11/76, f. 399. Educated at the local grammar school at Penllech, Caernarvonshire, Rowlands was ordained deacon at Bangor in 1572, thereby enabling him to hold the rectory of his native parish as a sinecure while studying at Oxford, and during his tenure as chaplain of New College. In 1581 he was instituted as rector of Launton, Oxfordshire on the nomination of John Aylmer^†, bishop of London. While at Launton, Rowlands married the widow of a local man, who had at least two children; the couple appear to have had no offspring of their own, but Rowlands may have hoped for patronage from his wife’s cousin, Sir William Pope of Wroxton, Oxfordshire.20 Dioc. of Bangor in the Sixteenth Century, 20, 56; Al. Ox.; Ath. Ox. ii. 855; CCEd; PROB 11/128, f. 198; HP Commons 1604-29, v. 733. Though appointed a prebend at Bangor Cathedral in 1584, and rector of Aberdaron, at the western end of the Llŷn, in 1588, Rowlands probably spent most of his time in Oxfordshire, at least until his appointment as dean of Bangor in 1593.21 Dioc. of Bangor in the Sixteenth Century, 25, 27-8.

Rowlands was consecrated as bishop of Bangor in November 1598, succeeding his cousin Richard Vaughan^* upon the latter’s translation to the see of Chester; he was presumably nominated by Sir Robert Cecil^* (later 1st earl of Salisbury), to whom he sent a letter of thanks. As Bangor was the poorest diocese in the realm, worth only £120 a year, Rowlands, like his predecessors, held the archdeaconry of Anglesey (valued at £60 a year) and several livings in commendam, among them Launton, which he retained for two more years, while he paid off his first fruits at Bangor.22 Griffith 179, 243; HMC Hatfield, viii. 368, 470; Trans. Congregational Hist. Soc. vi. 56; PROB 11/128, f. 198; B. Usher, Ld. Burghley and Episcopacy, 1577-1603, pp. 170, 225. The bishops of Bangor wielded a significant amount of patronage over the benefices in their diocese, but many livings were unable to support a graduate preacher, a dilemma magnified by the problems of communication in a Welsh-speaking area. To overcome this problem, and in contrast to his predecessors, Rowlands ordained a large number of university graduates from north Wales; some filled vacancies in the diocese, while others secured chaplaincies in gentry households.23 Dioc. of Bangor in the Sixteenth Century, pp. xxx-xxxi, 30-7, 67-75; W.P. Griffith, Learning, Law and Religion, 291-7.

Although he played little part in secular administration of north Wales, ‘having no will to deal but in his own element’, Rowlands was reputed a ‘bountiful housekeeper’. At the start of his episcopate he pledged ‘fidelity … to the Church, against kindred flesh and blood’, and attempted to improve the livings within his diocese.24 NLW, 9054E/544; J. Wynn, Hist. of the Gwydir Fam. and Mems. ed. J. Gwynfor Jones, 59. He invested considerable time, and his own money, in edifying Bangor Cathedral, buying three bells, re-leading the roof and raising money from his clergy for repairs, and – unlike many diocesans – played an active role in the worship there.25 J. Gwynfor Jones, ‘Henry Rowlands, Bp. of Bangor’, Jnl. Hist. Soc. of the Church in Wales, xxvi. 49, 52; PROB 11/128, f. 192; NLW, 464E/236.

The most pressing problem Rowlands encountered in his native shire was the rivalry between the Llŷn families and the assertive squire Sir John Wynn^‡ of Gwydir, whose estates lay at the eastern end of Caernarvonshire. Rowlands’ natural interests lay with the Llŷn men, but the bishop defied expectations by sustaining cordial relations with Gwydir. After the 1601 general election he was accused of having favoured the Chancery clerk Ellis Wynn^‡ as knight of the shire rather than the latter’s successful opponent, William Jones^‡ of Castellmarch. In June 1603, when a fresh election was thought to be imminent, Rowlands again supported Ellis Wynn’s candidacy for the Caernarvonshire seat. In the event, however, the election did not take place for another eight months, during which time the Llŷn faction gathered support around a rival candidate, Sir William Maurice^‡, who carried the day, probably unopposed.26 Gwynfor Jones, ‘Rowlands’, 48-9; NLW, Clenennau 421; J. Gwynfor Jones, Wynn Fam. of Gwydir, 218; HP Commons 1604-29, ii. 552. Sir John Wynn, although usually quick to take offence, never expressed any animosity towards Rowlands over this upset, remembering the bishop in his memoirs as ‘a good and provident governor of his church and diocese’. When Parliament finally assembled, Rowlands demonstrated his support for the aggressive expansion of the Wynn estates by forcing two of his tenants to retract a petition against Wynn’s behaviour as a landlord.27 Wynn, 59; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 50. However, local opinion held that the bishop was largely impartial. In 1606 the bishop’s tenants at Vaynol clearly assumed he would consider their grievances carefully when they complained about unfair tax assessment; while Wynn’s tenants at Llysvaen, Caernarvonshire sought his services as an arbitrator in a hard-fought dispute with their landlord.28 Add. Ch. 67077; NLW, 9053E/427.

Although he attended most of the sittings of the 1604 parliamentary session, and shared the proxy for William Overton^*, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Rowlands was not particularly active in the Lords. He was named to committees for three bills, these being to restrict the export of iron ordnance, to prevent the importation of ‘popish, vain and lascivious books’, and to deal with recusancy.29 LJ, ii. 263a, 285a, 290a, 301b, 313b, 324b. He missed the opening of the next session (5 Nov. 1605), and obtained a licence to be absent when Parliament reconvened in January 1606 on grounds of poor health. He turned up notwithstanding, and attended assiduously thereafter. He and Bishop Vaughan shared the proxy for George Lloyd^*, bishop of Chester. His position as a Welsh bishop brought him nominations to the committee for the bill to repeal the prerogative clause in the 1536 Welsh Act of Union and that for the Welsh cottons bill; while his earlier residence in Oxfordshire presumably explains his inclusion on the committee for the bill to make the Thames navigable just below Oxford.30 Ibid. 355a, 388a, 406b, 408b; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 261; SO3/3, unfol. (Jan. 1606). He was also included on committees to redraft bills to prevent the import of banned books and to punish swearing, to restrict the brewing of beer, and to impose the oath of allegiance on those travelling abroad.31 LJ, ii. 365a, 380b, 381b, 390b, 427a.

In November 1606 Rowlands appeared only once in the parliamentary records, on 22 Nov., before being licensed to absent himself. Bishop Vaughan held his proxy for the rest of the third session. Poor health does not seem to have been the cause of his absence, as he remained active locally.32 LJ, ii. 449a; NLW, 9053E/459; Cal. Clenennau Pprs. ed. T. Jones Pierce, 72. In 1609 Rowlands assigned estates in Anglesey, worth £20 p.a., to endow two scholarships at Oxford, one for students from the grammar schools of Llŷn and Bangor, the other for those from Beaumaris free school, where he was a governor.33 Add. 6044, ff. 6-8; Wynn, 59; PROB 11/128, f. 193v. Illness kept him from the first three weeks of the 1610 parliamentary session, when he granted his proxy to Richard Bancroft^*, archbishop of Canterbury, but he appeared in the Lords on 5 Mar. and attended for most of the next three months. During this time he preached twice at Paul’s Cross, ending his first sermon with a peroration against usury. In the Lords, he was included on only one committee, for the estate bill for Edward Neville^*, 8th or 1st Lord Abergavenny; he and many other peers also took the oath of allegiance, newly instituted in the Lords, on 8 June. On 30 June he was named to a committee to redraft the Abergavenny estate bill, but as he had by then left town, he cannot have attended.34 LJ, ii. 548a, 556a, 595b, 609b, 631b; ‘Paulet 1610’, ff. 3v-4v, 8r-v. He did not sit during the autumn session of 1610, but instead assigned his proxy to George Abbot^*, bishop of London (later archbishop of Canterbury) and Richard Parry^*, bishop of St Asaph, Archbishop Bancroft then being on his deathbed. Although he remained active in local affairs over the next five years, Parry did not attend the Addled Parliament either, granting his proxy to Abbot (by now archbishop of Canterbury) and John King^*, bishop of London. He gave £24 towards the benevolence raised after the dissolution, a sum comparable to those offered by other Welsh diocesans with larger incomes than himself.35 LJ, ii. 666a, 686a; CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 53; Anglesey Archives, David Hughes mss, box 15; NLW, 466E/613; Cal. Clenennau Pprs. 82-3; E351/1950.

Rowlands was presumably in failing health by the autumn of 1615, as he does not seem to have been a contender for the vacant bishopric of Chester, the see to which his two immediate predecessors had been promoted. In June 1616 he was said to be planning to take the waters at Bath, but some, anticipating his demise, were already lobbying to succeed him.36 NLW, Clenennau 314, 323; NLW, 9055E/763. Their hopes were not long disappointed, as he died on 6 July, and was buried in Bangor Cathedral where, shortly before his death, he had busts of himself and Bishop Vaughan erected in the quire.37 B. Willis, Survey of the Cathedral Church of Bangor (1716), 24-5, 109-10. They were destroyed in the Civil War. His will, signed on 1 July, but clearly drafted over a lengthy period, began with an extensive profession of Calvinist soteriology. Despite the poverty of his see, he had amassed an estate worth £150 a year. He left a life interest in much of this property to his wife and his younger brother Thomas, while his impecunious great-nephew, Harry Rowlands, was granted lands worth £50 p.a. in perpetuity. Cash, plate and memorial rings were bequeathed to an extensive list of kinsfolk and charitable uses. He confirmed his earlier endowment of scholarships to Jesus College, and assigned lands worth £20 p.a. to found a grammar school in his native parish of Meyllteyrn, or nearby Botwnnog, with the proviso that the schoolmaster should be ‘unmarried, a good scholar, a Master of Arts of the university of Oxford, and an Englishman (if it may be) for the language sake’. He also instructed that, following her death, his wife’s Caernarvonshire jointure lands were to be assigned to endow two scholarships at the Friars’ School, Bangor, for students from the western Llŷn. In addition, her Anglesey estates, worth £50 a year, were to be used to found an almshouse for six poor men in Bangor, who were to be required ‘to attend divine service in the church of Bangor forever’. He left several bibles, including one of the new King James edition, to kinsmen, and the rest of his library to two relations then studying at Oxford. His executors were his three senior diocesan officials (including Edmund Griffith^*, later bishop of Bangor), who proved the will on 12 September. His wife was presumably dead by 1623, when an inquiry compelled his executors pay £210 to endow the scholarships at the Friars’ School.38 PROB 11/128, ff. 191v-9; Wynn, 59-60; H. Barber and H. Lewis, Hist. Friars’ Sch., Bangor, 33-4.