Matthew Rowan (died April 1760) was a British colonial official who was the acting governor of North Carolina from 1753 to 1754.
[1] Purportedly, Rowan was the captain of an unregistered 90 foot 2-masted ship named Martha & Eliza which was wrecked on Grand Manon Island in the Bay of Fundy in 1741 carrying Presbyterian Irish expatriates.
The complaint continues saying that even some of their clothes were taken, “to leave us almost naked.” But the Cushing residents, many of whom had come from Northern Ireland themselves, were warm and generous to the new arrivals.
It being winter, however, they couldn’t support 48 newcomers for long, so they sent an appeal to provincial officials, signed by Alexander Campbell and William Lunnen.
The letter clearly informed them of Rowan’s abuses, and the Massachusetts House of Representatives wasted no time in authorizing provisions for the survivors.