Matthew Rowan (died April 1760) was a British colonial official who was the acting governor of North Carolina from 1753 to 1754.
Biography
Matthew Rowan was born in County Antrim, Ireland, but the date of his birth remains unknown. He was the son of Reverend John Rowan and the former Margaret Stewart and had eight brothers and three sisters. Although it is not known when Rowan emigrated to North Carolina, it is recorded that he lived in Bath in 1726, serving as a church warden. In addition, he was a merchant and shipbuilder in the colony. An affidavit of about 1729 notes that Rowan was sent to the colony to build one or two ships for some persons in Dublin and that he "is now run away with one of them loaded with enumerated goods contrary to the Acts of Trade." Rowan joined the assembly in 1727 and the executive council in 1731, where he worked between 1734 and his death in 1760. In 1735, Rowan worked in the survey of the boundary line between North and South Carolina with other men, being appointed surveyor-general of North Carolina.
He was appointed President of the Council and acting governor of North Carolina in 1753, following the death of governor Nathaniel Rice. He held this post for one year until the arrival of Governor Arthur Dobbs at New Bern in 1754. After that, Rowan retired to his plantation in Brunswick County, although he continued to serve as member of the Council. Rowan died in April 1760. He is buried on the Brunswick County plantation.
He married Elizabeth, the widow of his brother John, in 1742, although they had no children (while she had four daughters). Rowan did father one child, John Rowan, with Jane Stubbs; he acknowledged his paternity and remembered John in his will. Rowan mainly lived in the Lower Cape Fear, near the Brunswick County community (modern Northwest), where he lived in North Carolina.
In 1753, the area that had previously been the northern part of Anson County was formed into Rowan County, named in his honor. While Massachusetts Bay Colony records indicate provisions were sent to the town of Cushing, no accounting of them being received and distributed has been found.