Henry Rowlands

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Henry Rowlands , pseudonym Charles King (* 1655 in Plas Gwyn , Llanedwen , † November 21, 1723 in Llanedwen) was a British clergyman, antiquarian and early geologist.

Life

Rowlands was the son of William Rowlands and Magdaline, the daughter of Edward Wynne of Penhysgyn Isa. He came from a respected local family who lived at the Plas Gwyn country estate and, as evidenced by his works, received a good education in classical languages, presumably in private lessons. He was ordained an Anglican minister in 1682 . On October 2, 1696 he received the income from Llanfair-pwll and Llantysilio, in 1682 the parish of Llanidan with Llanedwen, Llanddaniel-fab and Llanfair-yn-y-cwmwd after the death of his predecessor John Davies. He was married to Elizabeth Nicholas and had two daughters and three sons. He hardly left his home region, the island of Anglesey , and had never traveled far. However, he corresponded with the contemporary historians Edward Lhuyd and Browne Willis (1682-1760).

Mona Antiqua Restaurata

Works

Rowlands wrote a book on the prehistoric antiquities of Anglesey (Mona Antiqua Restaurata) such as stone circles and cromlechs and believed his home to be the former headquarters of the druids in Great Britain and the cromlechs to be druid temples. The cartographer and antiquarian Humphrey Lhuyd or Llwyd (around 1527–1568) had a similar thesis . Both relied on Tacitus ( Agricola ), the druids mentioned in the Roman conquest of Anglesey, and his theory was given new impetus when a hoard was found in Lake Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey in the 1940s . Rowlands connected the bloody sacrificial altars of the Druids, described by Tacitus, with the megalithic monuments on Anglesey and saw their religion as related to that of the Old Testament, in which human sacrifices were also required, remnants of an old, uniform patriarchal religion. He justified this with the fact that the British were descendants of Gomer , a grandson of Noah . This was picked up by William Stukeley , who carried it over to Stonehenge . His image of a druid showed him with a flowing beard, sandals, hooded robe, stick and a branch with oak leaves in his hand. The reconstruction was influenced by that of Aylett Sammes (Britannia Antiqua illustrata 1676), except that the druid there held a book in his hand instead of an oak branch and did not wear sandals, but was barefoot.

Rowlands also held other now outdated views (such as the relationship of Cymric with other Celtic languages ), but handed down important archaeological references in his book.

He also wrote about agriculture on Anglesey (Idea agriculturae: the principles of vegetation asserted and defended, Dublin 1764) and a Treatise on Geology or a book about fossils , which was also translated into German.

He was involved in debates about the nature of fossils (under the pseudonym Charles King), noting in 1705 that while it was natural to regard them as relics of living things, the question of how to transport them to their place of deposit stood in the way.

He left a Latin manuscript on the church history of Anglesey (Antiquitates Parochiales), written in 1710 and partly published in Cambro Briton (in English translation) and Archaeologia Cambrensis (1846-1849).

Fonts

  • Mona Antiqua Restaurata, an Archæological Discourse on the Antiquities, Natural and Historical of the Isle of Anglesey. Dublin 1723; 2nd edition, London 1766 (editor Henry Owen, who also revised the book), supplement volume 1775. [1]
  • Idea Agriculturæ. The Principles of Vegetation asserted and defended. 1764 (written 1704)

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ DR Woolf, Rowlands, Henry (1655-1723). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Published online: 23 September 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/24216
  2. ^ DR Woolf, Rowlands, Henry (1655-1723). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Published online: 23 September 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/24216
  3. ^ DR Woolf, Rowlands, Henry (1655-1723). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Published online: 23 September 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/24216
  4. ↑ Mona is the Latin name of Anglesey
  5. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The Druids. Beck Wissen 2009, p. 101; Maier: The religion of the Celts. Beck, p. 163
  6. ↑ Ancient Druids of Wales , National Museum of Wales
  7. ↑ Bernhard Maier, Die Druiden, Munich, Beck 2009, p. 101
  8. ^ Cunliffe, The Druids. A very short introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2010, p. 105
  9. ↑ Kristine Chapman, Mona Antiqua Restaurata by Henry Rowlands , National Museum of Wales, Blog, August 4, 2017
  10. ↑ An investigation of the origin of the formation and of the origin of the fish-shells and other similar bodies that are dug out of the earth. Löwe, Leipzig 1733, translated by Theodor Arnold (1683–1771). Published in the original English edition under the pseudonym Charles King.
  11. ^ Rhoda Rappaport: When Geologists Were Historians. Cornell University Press, 1997, p. 125
personal data
SURNAME Rowlands, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES King, Charles (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British clergyman, antiquarian and early geologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1655
PLACE OF BIRTH Plas Gwyn , Llanedwen
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1723
Place of death Llanedwen