After the list of goods, he offered to purchase, "Some Negroes that can work at the Carpenter's Trade", and promised to "give a handsom[e] Price if he likes them.

"[5] He joined protests against tightening restrictions of colonial trade, and helped incite the anti-Stamp Act riot in 1765 that destroyed Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson's home.

In the letter, Hutchinson claimed that Rowe, Otis and Molineux and Davies provoked the protesters who destroyed Hutchinson's house on 26 August 1765: "When there is occasion to burn or hang effigies or pull down houses, these [rabble] are employed; but since government has been brought to a system, they are somewhat controlled by a superior set consisting of the mastermasons, and carpenters, &c., of the town of Boston.

When anything of more importance is to be determined, as opening the custom-house on any matter of trade, these are under the direction of a committee of the merchants, Mr. Rowe at their head, then Molyneaux, Solomon Davies, et&,…this is proper for a general meeting of the inhabitants of Boston, where Otis, with his mob-high of eloquence, prevails in every motion… and it would be a very extraordinary resolve indeed that is not carried into execution".

[4] Because several sources placed Rowe at the meeting, it's possible to theorise that the journal entry may have been an attempt to conceal his participation in the events leading to the Tea Party.