Thomas Rowe (1581 - 1644)

Born 1581 in Low Leyton, Essex, England

Ancestors

Died 1644 at about age 63 in Essex, England

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Biography

Sir Thomas Rowe (Roe) was an English diplomat during the early Stuart period.

Origins

Thomas Roe (Rowe) was born in 1581. He was the son of Haberdasher Robert Rowe, who died when Thomas was age 6, and his wife Eleanor Jermy. ^[1] It appears that the relationship between these families may have been a lasting one, as a half-century later, Thomas's cousin Mary Rowe married John Jermy of Suffolk. Following Robert Rowe's death, the widowed Eleanor married Sir Richard Berkeley of Gloucestershire. Eleanor's only daughter Mary married Sir Richard's grandson Richard Berkeley MP, as his first wife.

At age 12, Thomas entered Magdalene College, Oxford, matriculating 6 July 1593. ^[2] On 25 November 1597 he entered the Middle Temple. ^[3]

Perhaps owing to the influence of the Berkeley family, the young Thomas Rowe joined the court of Elizabeth I.^[4] After the accession of James I, Sir Thomas Rowe was knighted on 23 March 1604/5. ^[5] He was befriended by Princess Elizabeth Stuart, later the ill-fated Queen of Bohemia, whose cause he later assisted in his diplomatic career.

From about 1610, Sir Thomas Rowe was an adventurer in the West Indies and South America, then largely under the control of Portugal, undertaking several voyages to these regions and exploring the region of Guyana. He was also, by 1607, a member of the council of the Virginia Company, doubtless sponsored by his kinsman Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. However, these ventures were financially unsuccessful. ^[6]

Ambassador

Sir Thomas Rowe then considered a career in Parliament, but his path took a different turn in 1614, when the East India Company, regarding him as "of a pregnant understanding, well-spoken, learned, industrious, and of a comely personage", persuaded King James to appoint him as Ambassador to the Mughal Court in India, "to prevent any plots that may be wrought by the Jesuits to circumvent our trade". ^[6] The Company wanted treaties to found exclusive factories (trading depots) in the region, where they were in competition with the established Portugese traders represented by the said Jesuits, previous attempts having been unsuccessful. Sir Thomas was highly critical of the actions of his predecessors from the Company. He spent several years, until 1618, at the court of Padshah Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir, presenting himself as the king's ambassador, but in reality an agent of the Company. ^[7] Following his return, he published an account of his embassy that proved quite popular. ^[8]

While Sir Thomas was in India, the royal princess Elizabeth Stuart's husband Elector Frederick of the Palatinate had unwisely accepted the throne of Bohemia, losing his patrimony in consequence and setting off the 30 years war. Sir Thomas earned the gratitude of the English court by coming in 1620 to their defense in a publication: Bohemia Regnum Electiuum. ^[6]

His embassy was considered so successful, that in 1621 he was appointed, on behalf of the Levant Company, as ambassador to the Ottoman Sultan Osman II. While he disliked the Ottoman Porte and requested recall, he nonetheless performed valuable diplomatic work for the English state during his tenure and afterward, negotiating trade deals, the freedom of captive Europeans, and signing a treaty with Algiers against the Mediterranean pirates. After his term was completed, during his return to England, he met with the exiled Palatines and successfully promoted the protestant side in the 30 Years War, notably an alliance with the powerful Swedish king Gustavus Augustus. He later arranged a truce between Sweden and Poland, as well as a treaty between England and Denmark. ^[4]

Final Years

After a decade of fruitful diplomacy, Sir Thomas Rowe found himself left with scant resources due to the English monarchy's failure to reward him, except for a gold medal which he could not spend. Finally, in 1637, he was appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, which brought a pension of £1200 a year. He was named to the English Privy Council in 1640. In 1641 he undertook his last embassy - to the Imperial Diet of Ratisbon (Regensburg), where he argued inconclusively for the restoration of the Palatinate. ^[4]

Member of Parliament

Despite his (unremunerative) success as a diplomat, it often seems that Sir Thomas Rowe would have been better placed in Parliament, if King Charles I had not ceased holding them for eleven years between 1629 and 1640. He sat for different constituencies: Tamworth (1614); Cirencester (1621); Oxford University (1640). He was a constant supporter of the restoration of the Palatinate. Each time, however, his tenure was interrupted by a new diplomatic mission. ^[6]

Family

On 15 December 1614, at St Margaret, Westminster, Sir Thomas Rowe married Eleanor, the widowed Lady Beeston (Bistone), ^[9] daughter of Sir Thomas Cave of Stanford, Northamptonshire. The marriage had no issue.

Lady Rowe declined to accompany Sir Thomas to India, but she did join him while at Constantinople. On their return, calling on Elizabeth former Queen of Bohemia, the Rowes adopted at her wish the two daughters of the impoverished Baron Rupa. ^[4] There was no mention of them in his 1644 Will. ^[10]

Will

In 1640, Sir Thomas Rowe acquired the manor of Woodford in Essex. As his health declined, he sought to withdraw at last from government service: 26 June 1644 -- Letter from Sir Thomas Rowe, at Woodford, to the Speaker of the House of Lords. The continual pain and misery which the writer has lately endured forces upon him the resolution to make the last trial of hope upon earth for some ease by going to use the baths. ^[11] He was buried at the Woodford parish church on 8 November1644. ^[12] Lady Rowe joined him there at her death in 1675. There is no memorial or inscription on the tomb. In his Will ^[10], Sir Thomas left the sum of £80 "towards building an additional aisle to the church at Woodford, whenever the parishioners should demand it, after a good peace should be settled in church and state," it being then the height of the Civil War. ^[13]

"The Will of Sir Thomas Rowe, Chancellor of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and His Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Councel of Woodford, Essex" was signed on 8 July 1644 and proved almost three years later on 16 March 1647. ^[10] The principle beneficiary was "my most faithful, loving and discreet companion in all the troubles and infirmities of my life", his wife Lady Elinor Rowe, whom he also named executrix. Others principally named were his "dear brother (in-law)" Richard Berkeley and Richard's son "beloved nephew Sir Maurice Berkeley, knight," who received a bequest of £100 and was appointed overseer of the Will. Brothers and sisters of Maurice were named to have smaller amounts.

But what Sir Thomas had to leave his heirs were primarily debts owed to him, largely by the king, for payments never made for his services and also for a particular diamond jewel that he claimed to be worth £3500. The Will enumerates these in detail. In 1644, it might have seemed possible that "his Majesty" might recover his throne and be in a position to pay these debts, but by the time the Will was proved in 1647, there was no reasonable likelihood of this, and in less than two years Charles had lost his head, while his royalist supporters, like Sir Maurice, had lost large portions of their estates. ^[14] It does seem, however, that Sir Thomas, knowing his nephew's history, ^[15] should have been a better judge of character, as in 1650 Maurice brought suit against the widowed Dame Eleanor over Sir Thomas's estate. ^[16]

Dame Eleanor did, however, obtain some relief at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 ^[17] Demise to Lady Elinor, relect of Sir Thos. Rowe, on rental of 20l., of 800 acres of fen ground in Kesteven and Holland, co. Lincoln, for 31 years, from expiration of a former lease granted to her husband, at a rent of 5l., for satisfaction of 2,000l. owed to him by the late King for jewels. [Docquet Book, p. 64.]

Sources

1. ↑ Nicholl, John. "Pedigree of Rowe", Some account of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers ... p. 531. London: 1866. Pedigree
2. ↑ Foster, Joseph. Alumni Oxoniensis: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714, vol. 3, p. 1279. Oxford University Press: 1891. Oxon
3. ↑ Middle Temple Admissions Registration, p. 72. MTAR
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 49: Roe, Thomas by Stanley Lane-Poole DNB
5. ↑ Shaw, William Arthur. The Knights of England, vol II, p. 137. London: Sherratt and Hughes, 1906. Shaw
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3} History of Parliament Online: Roe (Rowe), Thomas Rowe
7. ↑ M-CHIDA-RAZVI, MEHREEN. “The Perception of Reception: The Importance of Sir Thomas Roe at the Mughal Court of Jahangir.” Journal of World History, vol. 25, no. 2/3, University of Hawai’i Press, 2014, pp. 263–84, JSTOR
8. ↑ The embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the court of the Great Mogul, 1615-1619. London: Printed for the Hakluyt society, 1899. Embassy
9. ↑ Thomas Rowe: in the England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973 Ancestry
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} PROB 11/199/680 TNA
11. ↑ TNA
12. ↑ Essex Burial Index 1530-1994: Woodford, Essex, England FindMyPast
13. ↑ Lysons, Daniel. "Woodford." The Environs of London: Volume 4, Counties of Herts, Essex and Kent. London: T Cadell and W Davies, 1796. 273-287. British History Online. Web. 2 February 2022. BHO
14. ↑ "Cases brought before the committee: May 1646." Calendar, Committee For the Advance of Money: Part 2, 1645-50. Ed. Mary Anne Everett Green. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1888. 697-703. British History Online. Web. 3 February 2022. Sir Maurice Berkeley, Rendcombe, Co. Gloucester.
15. ↑ History of Parliament Online: Berkeley, Maurice (1599-1654) HOP
16. ↑ Short title: Berkeley v Rowe - Plaintiffs: Sir Maurice Berkeley kt. - Defendants: Dame Eleanor Rowe, widow and Robert Adamson - Subject: personal estate of Sir Thomas Rowe kt, Woodford, Essex. C 10/40/6
17. ↑ "Charles II - volume 24: December 19-31, 1660." Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1660-1. Ed. Mary Anne Everett Green. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1860. 418-436. British History Online. Web. 3 February 2022. BHO

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