Rowland Whyte (died after 1626) was an Elizabethan official and businessman, whose letters provide important evidence about the latter stages of the life of Queen Elizabeth I and the transition to the rule of James I.
He was made lifetime Constable of Caernarfon Castle, at an annual income of £60, but he later sold the post back to the king for £500.
After Essex's unwonted return from Ireland, Whyte describes the disorder and uncertainty it created: His lordship's sudden return out of Ireland brings all sorts of knights, captains, officers, and soldiers, away from thence, that this town is full of them, to the great discontentment of her majesty, that they are suffered to leave their charge.
But the most part of the gallants have quitted their commands, places, and companies, not willing to stay there after him; so that the disorder seems to be greater there than stands with the safety of that service.
He often makes barbed comments and is regularly frustrated when he gets unreadable letters back from Sir Robert, whose handwriting was apparently indecipherable.