John Rowe (1816 – 17 Dec 1886) was a mineral assayer and mine manager who had a brief spell as member of South Australian parliament. He was born at St Agnes, Cornwall, and emigrated with his wife to South Australia on the David Malcolm, arriving in Adelaide on 23 January 1847, and advertised his availability as a "practical assayer". In 1849 they settled in Kapunda, where he worked as an assayer. In 1859 he was appointed manager of the Mochatoona copper mine, near Angepena Station in the Flinders Ranges, but left in mid-1860 after criticism by the board, compounded by the difficulty of transporting the ore to Port Augusta, and returned to Kapunda.