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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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B I 0 G RAP €I I CA L S K ET C H E S. 175 the Crown. This consoling information Was received by Lord Clare in 1769, with a passport from the British Government for me to meet my family in Denmark, and a farther promiseo f procuring me a pardon when there should be a peace with France. 6‘ Lord Clare died between the time of the signature of the preliminaries and that of the definite peace of 1803, and I was left without a Patron. &fr. Thomas Stet&, whose schoo~-fe,ow and fellow-collegian 1 had been, having heard these declarations, was induced by a mutnal friend to adopt my cause, and he followed it UP with a zeal I can nerer forget. When tile French armies were approaching Hamburgh, where I then resided with my family, he procured for me a promise of a pardon, if I would accept of it on the condition of never setting my foot in land without the permission of the Irish Government, which was to be expressed in the body of the pardon, niider a large penalty. I accepted of the terms with thankfulness, and embarked for England. Mr. Steele procured the instrument, to be immediately drawn up alld laid before the Chancellor to receive the great soal. The Chancellor refused to put the seal to such an instrument ; and it was above a year after-during which time it was found that the pardon must be under the great seal of Ireland, where the treason was committed-that he gave as i( reason for his refusal, that it would have put it in my power, on the payment of the pardon sum, to have gone to Ireland whenever I pleased. “ I then petitioned the Irish Government, stating the circumstances of the case, and I received an unconditional pardon. But the same condition of not residing or going to Ireland, without the permission of the Irish Government, was implied. In the summer 1805 I appeared in the Court of King’s Bench here, and pleaded my pardon.’ I returned immediately after to England, according to promise. Shortly after, my father died ; and I applied to Lord Castlereagh to procure me a permission to pass a fern months on my family estate, to regulate my affairs. He was so good as to make the application ; but before Lord Hardwicke’s answer arnved a change of ministry took place ; and I then applied for a permission to reside in Ireland, which was granted; and I have lived here ever since, most sincerely anxious to promote peace, harmony, and submission to the laws and constitution of Britain.” From this period fib. Rowan continued to reside in domestic quiet-enjoying the respect of his fellow-citizens, and the entire confidence of Government. He sat for many years on the bench as a magistrate ; and he and his family were frequently to be met, “in dresses singularly splendid,” at the Castle drawingrooms, “where they were well received by the viceroy, and many of the nobility and gentry.” Mr. Rowan died at his house in Holles Street, Dublin, on the 6th November 1834, in the eighty-fourth year of his age-having outlived his eldest son, Captain Gawin William Hamilton, C.B., so much distinguished as a naval officer, and who expired ‘‘ at Rathcoffey, County Kildare, the seat of his aged father,” on the 17th August previous, in the fiftieth year of his age. hfr. Frederick Hamilton Rowan, a younger son-a midshipman in the navy-was killed at the battle of Palamos in 18 10. The following account of hfr. Hamilton Rowan in his old age, by a gentleman of this city, appeared in the Edinburgh Literary Journal for November 1831 :- I “In the Court of King% Bench, Dublin, on the 1st of July, the outlam against Mr. Hamilton Rowan wa8 reversed ; and, $eading his Majesty’s pardon, he was discharged ; previous to which he made a very handsome speech, in which he expressed his gratitude to his Majesty for his clemency, by which he was enabled Once more to meet his wife and children, who had not only been unmolested, but had been protected and cherished when he was in a foreign He regretted with much sensibility, the of his former life, and the violent meaureS he had pursued, and promised to atone for them to his country and his family, W his future loyal conduet.” -Scots Mugw’n8, 1805.
Volume 9 Page 234
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