Benjamin Rogers
(1614-1698); organist and composer; in 1639 became organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; as early as 1653 the fame of Rogers’ “Sets of Ayres in Four Parts” extended to the court of the emperor; when Ingelo went as a chaplain to the Swedish embassy upon the restoration, he presented to Queen Christina some of Rogers’ music which was performed to her great content by the Italian musicians at the Swedish court; he won a high reputation in England by his music for the services of the established church and by his restoration of important choirs. His “Court-Masquing Ayres” were performed with great applause in Holland. Rogers’ hymn “Te O Patrem Colionus” has been used every evening as grace in the coll. hall at Oxford since his time, and is also sung annually on Magdalen tower every Mayday morning.
Charles Rogers
(1711-1784); art collector; acquired his taste for the fine arts and books collected from Wm. Townson, who left Rogers his estate and home which housed many valuable art treasures; with the help of friends abroad, added greatly to the collection; after many years it was sold, taking 24 days, and realized œ3,886. The remainder was given to the Plymouth Public Library.
Charles Rogers
(1825-1890); Scottish author; in 1855 was chaplain of the garrison at Stirling Castle; while there was a member of the town council; in 1863 went to London to devote himself to literary work; his earliest efforts were journalistic, but Scottish history, literature and genealogy were throughout his life the chief studies of his leisure; his researches along these lines proved of value; as early as 1854 Columbia Coll., N. Y., had given him the degree of LL.D.; was made a D.D., 1881, by the Un. of St. Andrews; a member, fellow or correspondent of numerous learned socieites, British, foreign and colonial, and an associate of the Imperial Archaeological Society of Russia.
Daniel Rogers
(1538?-1591); diplomatist; graduated B.A. at Oxford, in 1561; was introduced to court by Queen Elizabeth’s secretary who had been a friend of his father’s; Rogers went with Sir Wm. Winter to Antwerp and accompanied an important embassy to the Netherlands to treat with the Duke of Orange; also negotiated the terms there on which Elizabeth was to lend œ20,000 to the States-General; he carried the sympathy of his queen to Denmark to the young king on the death of his father, Frederic II; Rogers was a man of scholarly tastes and wrote Latin verses.
Sir Edwin Rogers
(1498?-1567?); comptroller of Queen Elizabeth’s household; at the coronation of Edward VI he was dubbed a knight of the carpet, and in 1549 was one of the four principal gentlemen of the privy chamber; under Elizabeth he was vice-chamberlain, capt. of the guard and a privy councillor; in 1560 succeeded Sir Thomas Parry as comptroller.
Ezekiel Rogers
(1584?-1661); colonist; educated at Cambridge; chaplain in the family of Sir Francis Barrington of Essex; was conspicuous at Rowley as a preacher and attached himself to the puritan party; in 1638 Rogers came with a party of 20 families to New England; he and his companions established themselves as a township to which they gave the name of their old home, Rowley; Rogers was appointed pastor of the new township.
Francis James Newman Rogers
(1791-1851); legal writer; educated at Oxford; called to the bar at the Inner Temple; he practiced in the common-law court as a special pleader; from 1835 till his death he was recorder of Exeter; from 1842 deputy judge-advocate-general; he was author of legal books.
Frederic Rogers
Lord Blackford; (1811-1889); Rogers made a very splendid record at Oxford and was called to the bar in 1837; in 1844 entered official life in London; was first registrar of joint-stock companies and a commissioner of lands and immigration; under-secretary of state for the colonies, 1860; succeeded his father as 8th baronet; was created K.C.M.G., G.C.M.G. and a privy councillor; raised to the peerage as Baron Blackford, 1876.
George Rogers
M.D.; (1618-1697); physician; fellow of the Coll. of Physicians of London, and president in 1681; he delivered the Harveian oration which was published the following year.
Henry Rogers
(1806-1877); Edinburgh reviewer and Christian apologist; educated at private schools and by his father; a man of profound piety and more than ordinary culture; entered the congregationalist ministry; lecturer on rhetoric and logic at Highbury Coll.; in 1836 he was appointed to the chair of English language and literature at University Coll., London; in 1839 English literature and languages, mathematics and mental philosophy in Spring Hill Coll. After 20 years he gave his full attention to literary pursuits; he published essays, poems and contributed articles to the “Encyclopaedia Brittanica”; his piety was united with a keen and skeptical intellect.
James Erwin Thorwold Rogers
(1823-1890); political economist; educated at Oxford; curate of St. Paul’s Oxford; lost sympathy with the tractarian movement in 1860, and abandoned the clerical profession; contributed to classical literature and was examined in the final classical school; in 1859 professor of statistics and economic science at King’s Coll., London; was also examiner in political economy at the University of London: a member of parliament.
John Rogers
(1500?-1555); first martyr in the Marion persecution; an orthodox Catholic priest, but while at Antwerp he met Wm. Tindal who was engaged on his translation of the Old Testament into English; their intimacy led Rogers to abandon the doctrines of Rome; at Wittenberg Rogers took charge of a protestant congregation; Tindal, who was burned alive, gave to Rogers the incomplete translation of the Old Testament and the latter finished it; although he did little of the translation, to him are due the valuable prefatory matter and the marginal notes; returned to London, 1548; appointed to the valuable prebend of St. Pancras in St. Paul’s Cathedral; divinity lecturer in the cathedral. The day before Mary was proclaimed queen, Rogers preached, by order of Queen Jane’s council, at Paul’s Cross. He boldly set forth “such true doctrines as he and others had then taught in King Edward’s days, exhorting the people constantly to remain in the same, and to beware of an idolatry and superstition.” For using such language he was summoned before the council. He explained that he was merely preaching the religion established by parliament; in 1555 Rogers and 10 other protestant preachers were brought before the privy council; Rogers held that he was not a heretic; he was condemned to death; before the fire was kindled he was offered a pardon, conditional on recantation, but he refused life under such conditions.
John Rogers
(1679-1729); divine; presented, 1704, to the vicarage of Buckland, where he was popular as a preacher; in 1726, became chaplain-in-ordinary to George II, then Prince of Wales; Rogers was a clear writer and an able controversialist.
John Rogers
(1740?-1814); Irish seceding divine; prof. of divinity for the Irish burgher synod, and was clerk of the synod from 1779 till his death; Rogers published sermons and dialogue in which he discussed the attitude of reformed and the seceding Presbyterians towards the civil power.
Nehemiah Rogers
(1593-1660); divine; probable grandson of John Rogers, Martyr; fellow of Jesus Coll; vicar of Messing, Essex; in 1636, was presented by the king to a stall in Ely Cathedral. Rogers wrote ably on the parables, in a learned and quaint style, his expositions having now become exceedingly scarce.
Philip Hutchings Rogers
(1786?-1853); painter; b. at Plymouth; educated at grammar school under John Bedlake who encouraged his taste for art. Bedlake sent Rogers to London to study for several years, maintaining him at his own expense; the artist chose principally as subjects, wide expanses of water under sunlight or golden haze; exhibited 91 pictures 1808-1851, chiefly at the Royal Academy and British Institution.
Robert Rogers
(1727-1800); colonel; b. in New Hampshire where his father was one of the early settlers; gained great celebrity as commander of “Rogers Rangers” in the war with the French in North America; a precipice near Lake George is named “Rogers Slide” after his escape down it from the Indians; he was sent to destroy the Indian Village of St. Francis and to capture Detroit and other ports west ceded by the French; he accomplished both these missions; went to England where, 1765, he printed his “Journals” which attracted George III’s favorable notice; was governor of Mackinaw, Mich., and colonel in the British army in America.
Samuel Rogers
(1763-1855); poet; familiarized himself with the works of Johnson, Goldsmith and Gray, who remained his models throughout his life; he contributed several essays to the Gentleman’s Magazine, and wrote the opcra “The Vintage of Burgundy”; in 1786, he published anonymously “Ode to Superstition”; visited Scotland, and became acquainted with almost every Scottish man of Letters; in 1792 published anonymously the poem with which his name as a poet is most intimately associated, “The Pleasures of Memory”; in a short time it had gone through fifteen editions; in 1850 Rogers was offered the laureatship on the death of Wordsworth, but he declined it.
Thomas Rogers
(1760-1832); divine; b. near Leeds; head master of the Wakefield grammar school, 1795, and was given the afternoon lectureship at St. John’s; conducted confirmation classes so successfully that a weekly lectureship was founded in order to allow him to permanently continue his instruction. His Sunday evening lectures were thronged, and raised the stagnant tone and religious feeling; in 1817 was chaplain of the West Riding house of correction; effected many prison reforms.
William Rogers
(d. 1610); engraver; first Englishman who is known to have practised copper-plate engraving; probably studied art at the school of the Wierix family at Antwerp; he engraved some portraits of Queen Elizabeth which are now very scarce; also engraved the large picture of Henry VIII and his family, attributed to Lucas de Heere, at Sudeley Castle; Rogers did much engraving for books.
William Rogers
(1819-1896); educational reformer; s. of William, a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn and a London Police Magistrate; Rogers was curate of St. Thomas, a parish containing 10,000 people; he remained there 18 years and devoted himself to helping the social condition of the people by meaus of education; opened a school for ragamuffins in a blacksmith’s shed; in 1847 opened a large school building, erected at a cost of œ1,750; another was completed in a year at the cost of œ5,500 and still another in Golden Lane; in 1858 Rogers was a member of the royal commission to inquire into popular education; was also chaplain in-ordinary to the queen; rector of St. Botolph’s where he devoted himself largely to the foundation of middle-class schools; Rogers was a man of great social gifts, broad views and was a real benefactor to education.
William Gibbs Rogers
(1792-1875); wood-carver; b. at Dover, showed an early taste for drawing and modelling; was apprenticed to one McLauchlin. Although young Rogers possessed much original skill himself, he was attracted by the beautiful wood carving and modelling of Grinling Gibbons; Rogers devoted his studies to Gibbons and entirely mastered his art; gained much reputation and was employed by the royal family for work on Carlton House, Kensington Palace, etc.; in 1848 executed some of his best known carvings–those in the church of St. Mary-on-Hill; he also did carvings for the palace of the Sultan; Abdul MedjŒd, at Constantinople, and the church of St. Michael Cornhill.
