1782, entered the royal artillery as second lieutenant on 28 Jan. 1786, and was stationed at Woolwich. He was transferred to the royal engineers on 23 Aug. 1787 and went to Gosport, where he was employed on the fortifications for the next two years. He went to Jersey in the summer of 1789, was promoted first lieutenant on 2 May 1792, and in December 1793 accompanied the expedition under the Earl of Moira to assist the Vendeans. The complete annihilation of the Vendean army rendered the expedition abortive. After its return to England Rowley accompanied Lord Moira with ten thousand men to reinforce the Duke of York in Flanders. Landing at Ostend on 26 June 1794 they marched through Bruges to Alost, and after a severe contest with the French retreated to Malines, fell back behind the Neethe, and joined the Duke of York. Rowley was engaged in an affair with the French near Rosendael on 16 July, the fight at Boxtel in September, and the siege at Nimeguen in October and November. In January 1795 he retreated with the British army across the dreary waste of the Weluwe district of Holland to Bremen, where, after some fighting with the French in February and March, he embarked in April and arrived in England on 8 May.
On 15 May 1795 Rowley was appointed adjutant of the corps of engineers and military artificers at Woolwich, and continued to hold the appointment until September 1799, having been promoted captain-lieutenant on 18 June 1796. On 1 Oct. 1799 he became aide-de-camp to the chief engineer of the kingdom at the office of the board of ordnance. He was promoted captain on 2 May 1800; brigade-major of royal engineers at headquarters on 1 May 1802; regimental lieutenant-colonel and assistant inspector-general of fortifications on 1 July 1806; deputy inspector-general of fortifications on 6 Dec. 1811; colonel in the army on 4 June 1814; regimental colonel on 20 Dec. of the same year, and major-general on 15 March 1821. He served on various committees, and distinguished himself by his administrative ability in all the staff appointments which he held. He was a fellow of the Royal Society. He died at Spencer Farm, Essex, the residence of the Rev. Lewis Way, on 1 Dec. 1824, while still deputy inspector-general of fortifications.
The Duke of Wellington, on hearing of his death, expressed, in a minute, his ‘utmost concern’ at the loss of so zealous and able an officer, while the board of ordnance recorded his services and the general regret felt at his death.
[War Office Records; Royal Engineers' Records; Royal Military Calendar, 1820; Gent. Mag. 1824, ii. 643.]
ROWLEY, Sir JOSHUA (1730?–1790), vice-admiral, eldest son of Sir William Rowley [q. v.], was probably born in 1730. After serving with his father in the Mediterranean, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 2 July 1747. In 1752 he was serving as lieutenant of the Penzance. On 4 Dec. 1753 he was posted to the Rye frigate, apparently for rank only. In March 1755 he was appointed to the Ambuscade, attached, later on, to the squadron under Sir Edward Hawke, in the Bay of Biscay. In January 1756 he was moved into the Harwich of 50 guns. In October 1757 he commissioned the Montagu, a new ship of 60 guns, in which he accompanied Admiral Osborn to the Mediterranean, and took part in the capture of the squadron under the Marquis Duquesne on 1 March 1758. Shortly afterwards he returned to the Channel and joined the squadron under Lord Howe. In the unfortunate affair at St. Cas he commanded a division of the boats, and, having landed to direct the re-embarkation of the troops, he was wounded and made prisoner. He was shortly afterwards exchanged and reappointed to the Montagu, which during 1759 he commanded under Hawke off Brest and in the battle of Quiberon Bay. In 1760 he went out with Sir James Douglas to the West Indies, where in November he moved into the Superbe, and returned to England in the following year. In 1762, in the Superbe, with two frigates, he convoyed the East and West Indian trade to the westward, and successfully protected it from the assault of a superior French squadron under M. de Ternay. For this service he was presented with handsome pieces of plate by the East India Company and by the city of London.
In October 1776 he was appointed to the Monarch, in which in the beginning of 1778 he convoyed some transports to Gibraltar. When he afterwards put into Cadiz, he was treated with a scant courtesy which was a clear indication of the coming storm in the relations of England and Spain. On his return to England he was attached to the fleet under Keppel, and led the van in the action of 27 July [see Keppel, Augustus, Viscount]. In the end of the year he was moved into the Suffolk, and sent out to the West Indies in command of a squadron of seven ships, as a reinforcement to Byron, whom he joined at St. Lucia in February 1779. On 19 March he was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue, and in that capacity was with Byron in the action off Grenada
