He was in favour of a vigorous programme of expansion from the coast into the interior in response to French activity in the Sahel region, at times in opposition to Colonial Office policy.

Rowe married Susannah, daughter of William Gatliff of Hawker Hall, Whitby, Yorkshire.

[1] Rowe arrived in Lagos in July 1862 and was soon appointed a judicial assessor in the chief magistrate's court and a slave commissioner, a difficult position.

Rowe got on well with the local people, who would later call him "Old Red Breeches", and was made a commandant of the eastern districts.

[1] He may have advised Nathaniel King and Sylvester Cole, members of the Sierra Leone elite, to study medicine at Aberdeen.

Samuel Rowe arrived on 2 July 1875, but transferred to Sierra Leone the next day, leaving Cooper to continue as acting administrator.

[5] Cooper died on 9 January 1877 and on 30 March 1877 Surgeon Major Valesius S. Gouldsbury arrived to take office as administrator.

[9] While governor-in-chief of the British West African Settlements he continued to act as governor of Sierra Leone.

[11] The acting governor got news of Havelock's appointment from a foreign consul some weeks before this was confirmed by the Colonial Office.

[1] In March 1883 Rowe issued an ordinance establishing registry offices for instruments affecting land in the Gold Coast Colony.

[11] On 30 December 1884 Rowe was again appointed governor of the West Africa settlements in response to a special petition of the traders and others.

[11] During his second term, following the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, British activity in the interior increased and there was growing competition with the French, who had colonial ambitions in the same region.

[1] In August 1887 the Secretary of State for the Colonies said he had received a report from Rowe saying the chiefs of Jarra and Fogni, who had been suffering from raids by slave traders, had offered to place their territories under British protection.

[15] Rowe's health began to fail in 1887, in part due to worries about the advance of the French in the region.