There is no proof to hand of JOHN WELDON ROWLEY's birth, but it is thought that he was born on 8th February, 1847, possibly in Bradford as he was always proud to be called a Yorkshireman
He had a struggling childhood but one in which his love of music and dancing played an important part.
In an early interview he said that his father who was a taxidermist and had fought at the Battle of Waterloo, taught him to dance and took him to the Casino Music Hall in Leeds when he was only eight years old.
At thirteen he was apprenticed to a Huddersfield whitesmith but sang at every opportunity … at free and easies, dinners and all kinds of concerts.
He had an inordinate capacity for picking up and memorising songs, at the age of eighteen he once sang 103 songs in one night to win a wager!
It was about this time he went to see one of his 'idols' the Great Vance who was playing the Harlequin, Huddersfield and singing his famous song 'Jolly Dogs'.
Vance and Arthur Lloyd also sang 'Going to the Derby', a song which eventually became Rowley's own.
It was after seeing Vance that night that he decided to make the Music Hall his professional career. Although he did learn his trade and serve his time first.
There is some confusion over his first professional appearance. In a 1902 interview he said it was at the Argyll Theatre, Huddersfield but in an interview shortly before his death, he claimed it to be at Ben Sherwood's Gaiety Music Hall in Wakefield. Another source quotes the Albert Hotel, Buxton Road, Huddersfield. The confusion is probably due to the fact that not all were purely 'professional'. It seems that J.W. was a member of the Oddfellows Lodge at the Albert Hotel and there is evidence of his arranging concerts for his fellow members.
He is featured in 'POPULARITY' by Walter H. Lambert; figure 63, is Jack Rowley, sitting in his donkey cart.
He first made his impact on the Northern Music Hall stage which eventually lead to his appearance in London and in 1870 he appeared at the Sun, Knightsbridge, Gatti's Under the Arches and Wilton’s music halls. He also appeared at the Evans's Supper Rooms where he became friends with Harry Clifton. When Clifton died in 1872 J.W. was granted the rights to singing Polly Perkins of Paddington Green.
Became called 'OVER' Rowley when he sang 'Going to the Derby' and would complete a one handspring supported by a walking stick. It became so popular that the audience would shout 'OVER ROWLEY' to get him to perform the feat.
J.W. made such an impression in London that he did not appear in the provinces again for four years.
By the time he reached the Capital he had married his first wife ANNE KAYE who bore him a daughter PARTHENIA (PATTY) and a son EDWIN (s/n EDWIN BOYDE).

Rowley’s second wife was ROSEMARY or MARIE. She was born in 1854 and, as a child appeared with her sister as the Sisters Tibbetts at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham at the beginning of the 1860's. From that time through the years she appeared as MARIE ROSELAND and had a busy career. She was an expert dancer, a vocalist and pantomime principal. She appeared only once with J.W, in pantomime, his first production of Dick Whittington at the Opera House, Leicester in the 1880's.
She died in 1930.
J.W.'s telegraphic address at the height of his fame was COMEDIAN, LONDON; quite a status symbol.
He played Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Midlands extensively. In an interview in the Football Evening News of 13th September, 1902 he said "My favourite dates were in Dublin" He continues that on this first trip across to Dublin he took a harvestman's ticket from Ashton-Under-Lyme and landed with only 1s. 6d. in his pocket. Policemen who examined his luggage found in it an old gun and some dented armour. They were about to arrest him for these possessions when he put on the armour, shouldered the rifle and sang a comic song to prove to the officers that he was a comic singer. They let him go.
He was asked in 1892 how many times he had sung 'Going to the Derby' and replied that his daughter Patty and he had studied the question and that to date they calculated it was 32,000 times!!
On 1^st of JULY 1912 he appeared at the ROYAL COMMAND PERFORMANCE, at the PALACE THEATRE, London. It was his proudest boast that he was the only Yorkshireman to appear before King George V and Queen Mary. He was then a spry 65 years old and had to be content with a place amongst 150 artists captured for eternity in a scene called 'VARIETY'S GARDEN PARTY' and was photographed.
He had an excursion into Music Hall Management at ROWLEYS VARIETIES. In 1887 he bought the Little Wooden Hut Theatre in Huddersfield, on the site of the present day Post Office in Byrom Street (1987) and opened his own Music Hall under the name of 'ROWLEYS EMPIRE', presenting popular entertainment for the next ten years. One of his early artists was  MR. CHARLES CHAPLIN Snr. in 1892.
In 1897 he sold out to the ROBINSON BROTHERS after loseing £25,000 in the ten year period.

Returning to play the Halls he met and worked with ELLA DEAN 'The double throated vocalist' whom he had discovered singing in a weird place called COCKAYNES. They formed a partnership which was to last until his death in 1925 aged about 78.
He was buried in Edgerton Cemetery, Huddersfield

 There is little doubt that he was a very fit man as he was still doing his somersaults into his seventies.

There is little memorabilia surviving but amongst the treasures is one of his sticks, presented to him by a Sheffield audience in 1894.
There are fifteen original song covers including "It's the same old thing over again" he had at least 150 published
The original poster cover from the front of the SUN KNIGHTSBRIDGE of his first LONDON appearance in 1870.

Chance Newton, in Idols of the Halls, was evidently very taken with Rowley, refering to him as " a popular comic singer and wonderful dancer, generally known as ‘Over Rowley,' because of his handsprings in his song called 'Going to the Derby'… Rowley had one of the sweetest tenor voices I have ever heard. The only other voice then like it (in the halls) was that of the late Alec Hurley. Each of these entertainers was able to charm you at once by their vocal tones, whatever the song they sang."

He speaks about two types of presentations, citeing Rowley as "A good example of the 'coster' or humble hawker or illiterate operative character singing" and again compares his performance with that of Alec Hurley, both of whom "…used to deviate into an idealised form of coster carol. These included such, then tremendously popular and melodious ditties, as: ‘A Starry Night for a Ramble' and that fine ringing working-class ballad with the chorus
"Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground,
Where no ray of sunshine is ever to be found;
Diggin' dusty di'monds, all the seasons round
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground.'-"

Newton also tells of his experience of a topical song "It Was Only the Way it was Done on the Stage" saying " It was in many an outside hall, that I used to hear Rowley trying himself at topical ditties, and eventually he made quite a furore wherever he went with a splendid topical song which, if I remember rightly was written for him by Fred Albert. The topics in this song were introduced in a dramatic form, and each verse ended with the line : "It was only the way it was played on the stage."

Frederick Denny