Richard Rowlands, born Richard Verstegan (c. 1550 – 1640), was an
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to peopl ...
-
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
antiquary, publisher, humorist and translator. Verstegan was born in
East London the son of a
cooper; his grandfather, Theodore Roland Verstegen, was a refugee from
Guelders who arrived in England around the year 1500.
A convert to the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, Rowlands produced an English translation of the
Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Hours of the Virgin, is a liturgical devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in imitation of, and usually in addition to, the Divine Office in the Catholic Church. It is a cycle of psalms ...
; the translation and
primer prayer book that contained it remained among the most popular English Catholic devotionals for two centuries.
Biography
Under the
patronym Rowlaunde, Richard went to
Christ Church, Oxford,
[ in 1564, where he may have studied early English history and the Anglo-Saxon language. Having become a ]Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, he left the university without a degree[ to avoid swearing the Oath of Supremacy. Thereafter he was indentured to a ]goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...
, and in 1574 became a freeman
Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to:
* a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm
* Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies
* Free ...
of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Lond ...
. In 1576 he published a guidebook to Western Europe, translated from German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, entitled ''The Post of the World''.[
At the end of 1581 he secretly printed an account of the execution of ]Edmund Campion
Edmund Campion, SJ (25 January 15401 December 1581) was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was h ...
but was discovered and 'being apprehended, brake out of England'. In exile he resumed the surname of Verstegen (Anglicized Verstegan). While in Paris he was briefly imprisoned at the insistence of the English Ambassador;[ in Rome, he was the recipient of a temporary pension from the pope. In both of these cities he published accounts of the suffering of priests in England.
In 1585 or 1586 he moved to Antwerp, and set up in business as a publisher and engraver,][ an intelligencer, and a smuggler of books and people. From 1617 to about 1630 Verstegan was a prolific writer in Dutch, producing epigrams, characters, jestbooks, polemics. He also penned journalistic commentaries, satires and editorials for the '']Nieuwe Tijdinghen
''Nieuwe Tijdinghen'' (in English also known as the ''Antwerp Gazette'') is the contemporary name cataloguers and bibliographers have given to the first Flemish newspaper, which was published without a single fixed title. News was printed from acr ...
'' (New Tidings) printed in Antwerp by Abraham Verhoeven
Abraham Verhoeven (1575–1652) was the publisher of the first newspaper of the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium).
In 1605 he got his license to print news of military victories in woodblock or copperplate. Thereafter he produced not only prints ...
from 1620 to 1629.[Paul Arblaster, ''From Ghent to Aix: How They Brought the News in the Habsburg Netherlands'' (Leiden and Boston, 2014), pp. 92-93]
Partial view
on Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
. This makes him one of the earliest identifiable newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
journalists in Europe. He spent the rest of his long life in Antwerp, dying there in 1640.
Works
* ''Theatrum Crudelitatum haereticorum nostri temporis'' (= Theatre of the Cruelties of the heretics of our time) (1587)
* ''A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning the most noble and renowned English Nation'' (1605; reprinted 1628, 1634, 1652, 1655, 1673). This includes the first English version of the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
* ''Nederlantsche Antiquiteyten'' (1613; further editions 1631, 1646, 1662, 1700, 1701, 1705, 1714, 1725, 1733, 1756, 1809); an adaptation of the ''Restitution of Decayed Intelligence''
* ''Neder-duytsche epigrammen op verscheyden saecken'' (Mechelen, Henry Jaye
Henry Jaye (died 1643) was an English Catholic exile in the Southern Netherlands. He became printer to the city of Mechelen.
Life
The earliest record of Jaye is in 1606, when the English ambassador in Brussels, Sir Thomas Edmondes, had him summ ...
, 1617) – a volume of epigrams
available on Google Books
* ''Sundry Successive Regal Governments in England'' (1620)
* ''Spiegel der Nederlandsche Elenden'' (1621)
* ''Scherp-sinnighe characteren. Oft subtijle beschrijvinghe'' (Antwerp, Willem Lesteens, 1622)
Available on Google Books
* ''Medicamenten teghen de melancholie'' (published by Hendrick Aertsens Hendrick may refer to:
People
* Hendrick (given name), alternative spelling of the Dutch given name Hendrik
* Hendrick (surname)
* King Hendrick (disambiguation), one of two Mohawk leaders who have often been conflated:
** Hendrick Tejonihokarawa ( ...
, 1633)
The verses on the defeat of the Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
rebels under Tír Eoghain
Tír Eoghain (), also known as Tyrone, was a kingdom and later earldom of Gaelic Ireland, comprising parts of present-day County Tyrone, County Armagh, County Londonderry and County Donegal (Raphoe). The kingdom represented the core homeland of ...
, entitled ''England's Joy'', by R. R. (1601), have mistakenly been attributed to him.
References
*''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' article by Paul Arblaster, ‘Verstegan owlands Richard (1548x50–1640)’, 200
accessed 5 Nov 2006
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowlands, Richard
1550s births
1640 deaths
English Roman Catholics
English male journalists
English people of Dutch descent
16th-century English writers
16th-century male writers
17th-century English writers
17th-century English male writers
16th-century antiquarians
17th-century antiquarians