Samuel Rowe (antiquary)
| Samuel Rowe | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 November 1793 Brixton, Devon, England |
| Died | 15 September 1853 (aged 59) Crediton, Devon, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Vicar, antiquarian |
| Known for | Perambulation of Dartmoor |
Samuel Rowe (11 November 1793 – 15 September 1853) was a farmer's son who became a bookseller, vicar and antiquarian of Devon, England. He is known for his Perambulation of Dartmoor, which for many years was the standard work on the prehistoric and later sites to be found on the moor.
Samuel Rowe was born on 11 November 1793, second son of Benjamin Rowe, freeholding farmer of Sherford Barton, Brixton, Devon, and Mary Avent of St Budeaux, Devon. The Rowe family had lived at Brixton for several generations. He attended the nearby Plympton Grammar School. Rowe had "ever an insuperable distaste for agricultural pursuits." The family thought of sending him to Oxford to study for entry into the Church of England. Instead he was made apprentice to a Kingsbridge, Devon, bookseller in 1810. In 1813 his father bought him an old-established bookshop in Plymouth, where his younger brother, Joshua Brooking Rowe, soon joined him. He devoted his free time to study and writing.
Rowe became a close friend of Thomas Byrth (1793–1849), an avid if untutored reader and scholar. In 1814 they launched the Plymouth Literary Magazine and undertook an antiquarian tour of Cornwall. They published six issues of the magazine, the last appearing on 19 November 1814. Also in 1814 they established a boarding school in Plympton, which was also short-lived. In 1817 Rowe joined the Plymouth Athenaeum, which was called "the centre of all literary, scientific and artistic life in South Devon." In 1821 he became the secretary of the Athenaeum.
Rowe was a churchwarden under the evangelical Rev. John Hatchard at St. Andrew's, Plymouth, in the early 1820s. He matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1822, graduated B.A. in 1826 and M.A. in 1833. In 1824 he was ordained as a curate at St. Andrews under Hatchard. He was then presented to the incumbency of St. Budeaux, and in 1832 became the first minister of a new church of St. Paul at Stonehouse, Plymouth. He was then transferred to the vacant incumbency of St. George, the older church of Stonehouse. There preferments were all in the gift of the Rev. John Hatchard. In 1835 Rowe was elected vicar of Crediton, Devonshire, out of seventy candidates.
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