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 the following year he made the acquaintance of Theobald Wolfe Tone [q. v.], and was by him persuaded to join the Society of United Irishmen. Shortly afterwards, in consequence of the arrest of the secretary of the society, James Napper Tandy [q. v.], he was fixed upon by Tone, on account of his respectability and reputation for personal bravery, to assist him in preventing the society from ‘falling into disrepute’ by calling out any member of parliament who ventured to speak disrespectfully of them. He was at the same time appointed secretary to the Dublin committee. Their determination and appearance in the gallery of the house ‘in their whig-club uniforms, which were rather gaudy,’ had the effect of drawing upon them the attention of government; and in December 1792 Rowan was arrested on a charge of distributing a seditious paper, beginning ‘Citizen soldiers, to arms!’ at a meeting of volunteers held in Dublin to protest against a government proclamation tending to their dissolution. As a matter of fact he was not the author of the pamphlet, nor was he on the occasion in question guilty of disseminating it (cf., Life of Henry Grattan, iv. 166). He gave bail for his appearance when wanted, but it was not till 29 Jan. 1794 that he was brought up for trial in the court of king's bench. In the meanwhile he further aggravated the government by acting as the bearer of a challenge on the part of the Hon. Simon Butler to the lord-chancellor, Lord Fitzgibbon (subsequently Earl of Clare), and by going shortly afterwards himself to Scotland in order to challenge the lord-advocate for certain disparaging words used in regard to him. His defence, at his trial in Dublin, was conducted by Curran, whose speech on that occasion is by many regarded as his finest effort in oratory. But being found guilty, he was sentenced to a fine of 500l., imprisonment for two years, and to find security himself in 2,000l. and two others in 1,000l. each for his good behaviour for seven years.

His imprisonment in the Dublin Newgate was rendered as little irksome as possible by the visits of his wife and friends, and in order to while away the time he occupied himself in drawing up a report of his own trial (printed by P. Byrne of Grafton Street; another report was published about the same time by W. m'Kenzie of College Green). Three months had thus elapsed when he received a visit from the Rev. William Jackson (1737?–1795) [q. v.] and a government spy of the name of Cockayne. Jackson's object was to obtain a report of the state of affairs in Ireland for the Comité de Salut Public. A report such as he wanted was accordingly drawn up by Tone, copied by Rowan, and betrayed by Cockayne, in consequence of which Jackson was arrested. Cockayne, with the connivance, it is suggested, of Lord-chancellor Fitzgibbon (, Irish Nation), brought the news of Jackson's arrest to Rowan, who at once concerted measures for his own escape. Nor was the danger that threatened him an imaginary one; for it appears from a letter from Marcus Beresford to his father, written on the very day of Jackson's arrest, that government had determined to hang Rowan, if possible (Beresford Corresp. ii. 25). Accordingly, two days later, having succeeded in bribing the under-gaoler to allow him to visit his house in Dominick Street, for the ostensible purpose of signing a deed, he managed to slip out of a back window, and to escape to the house of a Mr. Sweetman at Sutton, near Baldoyle, where he lay concealed for three days. With Sweetman's assistance a boat was found to carry him to France, and though before it sailed the sailors were aware who their passenger was, and that rewards amounting to 2,000l. had been offered for his apprehension, they refused to betray him, and a few days later landed him safely at Roscoff, near Morlaix in France. On landing, however, he was immediately arrested as a spy, and, being taken to Brest, was for some time imprisoned in the hospital there, till, orders for his release arriving, he was taken to Paris. Hardly had he arrived there when he was attacked by fever, which confined him to his bed for six weeks. On his recovery he was examined before the Comité de Salut Public, and had apartments assigned to him at the expense of the state. He resided in Paris for more than a year, during which time he formed an intimate acquaintance with Mary Wollstonecraft [q. v.]; but finding that after the death of Robespierre all parties in France were too much occupied with their own concerns to pay attention to Ireland, he obtained permission to go to America, and, after a wearisome voyage, reached Philadelphia on 18 July 1795. His departure from France was notified to the Earl of Clare, who throughout had evinced extraordinary kindness to him and his family, and the earl now exerted his influence to prevent the sequestration of Rowan's estates, and thus enabled his wife to remit him 300l. annually.

Quitting Philadelphia, Rowan settled down at Wilmington on the Delaware, and was shortly afterwards joined there by Tone and Tandy. But the scenes he had witnessed in Paris during the reign of terror had materially modified his political opinions, and, declining to take any part in Tone's enter-