Place Name
Named after Owen Rowe, a colonel in the London militia during the English Civil War and one of the men credited with giving the Parliamentarians victory in their fight against the Royalists. Originally a haberdasher by trade he was the main arms buyer for the Roundheads, ensuring their muskets were in working order and ready for battle. After the Roundhead victory he was one of the judges of Charles I. Later during Cromwell’s rule he settled back in Hackney carrying out many marriages in the local area. But following the Restoration he surrendered himself to Charles II and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Tower of London. When he died in December 1661 he was taken from the Tower and buried in the churchyard of St John’s Hackney.
