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.