Josias Rowley

Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, 1st Baronet GCB, GCMG (1765-January 10 1842), known as "The Sweeper of the Seas", was a naval officer who commanded the campaign which captured the French Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius in 1810.Listed in Burkes Peerages, second son of Clotworthy Rowley, Barrister and MP for Downpatrick in the Irish Parliament, mother was Letitia, (nee. Campbell) of Mountcampbell, Co. Leitrim. Josias' grandfather was Admiral-of-the Fleet Sir William Rowley KB.

Early naval service

Although he was entered on the books of "Monarch", commanded by his uncle Sir Joshua Rowley, from November 1777 to December 1778, it is doubtful if he served in her. In December 1778 he joined "Suffolk", with his uncle, and sailed to the West Indies. By 1780 he was a midshipman. He was promoted lieutenant on December 24, 1783. He served in the West Indies and the North Sea. On March 14, 1794, he was promoted to command the sloop "Lark" (16 guns) in the North Sea. He was soon promoted to post captain on April 6, 1795. In April 1797 he was appointed to "Braave" (40 guns) at the Cape of Good Hope, and in January 1799 was moved into "Impérieuse" (38 guns), in which he went to the East Indies, and returned to England in June 1802. In April 1805 he commissioned "Raisonnable" (64 guns), in which he took part with Admiral Sir Robert Calder in the action off Cape Finisterre on July 22 1805, and at the end of the year went to the Cape of Good Hope under the command of Sir Home Riggs Popham, with whom he afterwards went to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, where he took an active part in the operations under Popham. After the failure of the expedition the "Raisonnable" returned to the Cape of Good Hope.

The Mauritius campaign

In September 1809, Rowley was commodore of the little squadron in the neighbourhood of Mauritius, and with the commander of the East India Company troops at Rodrigues devised a plan to raid the island of Réunion, which was successful. In March 1810 he moved into "Boadicea" (38 guns), and in July the squadron transported a strong force, which landed on Réunion. The island was quickly captured. Rowley was still at Réunion when he received news from Captain Samuel Pym of his planned attack on the French frigates in Grand Port, Mauritius. Rowley sailed at once, but did not arrive until after Pym's force had been defeated and several of his ships captured. On September 12, "Africaine" arrived off Réunion. Rowley put to sea to join her, but was still several miles away when the "Africaine" engaged, and was captured by, the French frigates "Iphigénie" and "Astrée".

With two sloops "Boadicea" recaptured "Africaine" the same afternoon. The French frigates considered the British too strong to attack, and they retired. Rowley's force was shortly afterwards strengthened by the arrival of several frigates, and from mid-October he was able to maintain a close blockade of Port Louis, Mauritius which continued until the arrival of the expedition under Vice-Admiral Albemarle Bertie on November 29 and the surrender of Mauritius on December 3, 1810.

This campaign was used by author Patrick O'Brian as the setting for one of his Aubrey–Maturin series books, "The Mauritius Command". His hero, Jack Aubrey, takes the place of Rowley in the novel.

Further naval commands

Rowley was then sent home with the dispatches, and on his arrival in England was appointed to "America (74 guns), which he commanded in the Mediterranean until October 1814. He was also created a baronet in December 1813 and promoted rear-admiral in 1814. In January 1815 he was made a KCB. During the summer of 1815 he was again in the Mediterranean with his flagship "Impregnable" (98 guns), under Lord Exmouth), but he returned to England at the end of the war. From 1818 to 1821 he was commander-in-chief on the coast of Ireland; and from 1821 to 1826 he was MP for Kinsale, co. Cork. In 1825 he was made vice-admiral; was commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean from December 1833 to February 1837. He died unmarried and without heir to his titles on 10th January 1842 within the Mount Campbell family estate at Drumsna, Co. Leitrim, was buried and commemorated at the nearby Annaduff parish church. Survived by his younger brothers Admiral Samuel Rowley RN (also commemorated within Annaduff parish church) and Reverend John Rowley, incumbent rector at Virginia, County Cavan.

References

*Josias Rowley's service record and Last Will and Testament are held in the British National Archives [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/] .
* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]