Hunter Gowan

John Hunter Gowan (the second) born c. 1727, died c. 28 May 1824, commonly known simply as 'Hunter Gowan' was an Irish loyalist and leader of a yeomanry corps known as the 'Black Mob', which was accused of committing atrocities against Catholic civilians before and after the outbreak of the 1798 rising in Wexford. He remains a hate figure in local nationalist tradition. He was buried on 28 May 1824 in Christ Church, Gorey aged 97 years.

John Hunter Gowan II was the son of John Hunter Gowan I (b.1699 - d. 1779) and Anne Hatton (b. circa 1700). His father was the son of John Gowan (b.1668) who married the daughter of John Hunter from Co Tipperary resulting in the double-barrelled surname.

John Hunter Gowan I's father, John Gowan, was an officer in King William’s army and bought property in Wexford for his eldest son, John Hunter Gowan I, an attorney. John Hunter Gowan II had one brother, Henry Hatton Gowan (b.1736).Local contribution: John Hunter Gowen is interred in St John's Church, Hollyfort, Gorey, Co Wexford. I am a native of that area, and when young, heard stories of men coming out of a local public house and going up to the church where his body laid in a vault which could be accessed by an open gate. They took out his skull and proceeded to play a game of football around the cemetery, his reputation for deeds of horror on neighbours during 1798, when he was about 72 years old, having stayed in the minds of locals. The story came to the attention of a local vicar, and eventually the vault was sealed (cemented). The spelling always was Gowen. He was a local magistrate and knew all neighbours. This is why he became so hated after the 1798 battle for Irish independence.

John Hunter Gowan II married Frances Norton in 1771. They had four sons and twelve daughters.

Outside of marriage, Hunter Gowan had children by Margaret Hogan, including another son, Ogle Robert Gowan, who was a prominent Orangeman and a newspaper publisher in Brockville, Kingston and Toronto, Canada; this man was the founder and first Grand Master of the Orange Association, Canada. His home in Canada is now called Nebo Lodge in tribute to his father's Wexford home Mount Nebo.

At the age of sixty-one, Gowan started a relationship with Margaret Hogan, a young local Protestant who was governess for his children. The following is an extract from the somewhat fictionalised biography of his son Ogle Robert Gowan:

'Gowan's wife had died six years previously, worn out, as Hunter himself expressed it, like an old ewe from too many birthings. She had served as dam for sixteen of Gowan's children, most of whom had lived, and she had [died], not from any specific disease, but from overuse, and in that respect was far from unique among Irish women of her era.

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