Elizabeth (Browne) Rogers (1741 - 1813)

Born 29 Jun 1741 in Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire

Ancestors

Wife of Robert E. Rogers — married 30 Jun 1761 (to 1778) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Wife of John Roche — married after 1778 in Portsmouth, NH

Died 11 Dec 1813 at age 72 in Concord, Merrimack, New Hampshire, United States

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Biography

Elizabeth Browne Rogers’ chief claim to fame is that she was wife of the well-known French and Indian War hero, Robert Rogers (of Rogers’ Rangers fame), whom she married in 1761. She sat for the colonial portraitist Joseph Blackburn in commemoration of this event. (This painting now hangs in the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, N.C.) Rev. Browne, who seems to have steered his daughter into this marriage, soon grew alarmed at reports received of his son-in-law’s misconduct and began to counsel divorce. Elizabeth Rogers initially resisted, but ultimately heeded this advice.

from "War on the Run", page 314:

"On Sunday Rogers walked up the crest of Church Hill to the Queen's Chapel. From its steepled perch over a simple unpainted rectangular wooden building, the bell rang, a spoil of the capture of Louisbourg in 1746, presented by New Hampshiremen who had served on the victorious expedition. There was more to the gathering than the austere readings from the Book of Common Prayer. Rogers could not take his eyes off Browne's comely eldest daughter, Betsy. Long brown hair cascaded down the 19-year old's back, and her dark eyes flashed with liveliness and interest. A long aquiline nose mirrored her father's.

Browne no doubt noticed the electricity between the pair and did not discourage it. Such dashing suitors were few in Portsmouth, and besides he knew Betsy to be a strong-willed child. . .

Over the next few weeks Rogers undertook a campaign to win Betsy's hand that was as worthy as any wartime expedition, spending much time at the Brownes' house on Court Street, often in discussion with the 62-year-old cleric. The blistering fast courtship ended when Betsy agreed to marry Rogers on June 30, her twentieth birthday, a date set with his impending departure for South Carolina in mind.

But their wedding proved the high-society event of the summer, even meriting newspaper mention in an age before social columns. The backwoods youngster's star had burned white-hot, rising from the rugged frontier poverty on Mountalona to glaring zenith of the established coastal colony's highest social circles. No record exists of the event itself, but likely Portsmouth's elite all showed up at church in their liveried coaches, then retired to the Browne's house for a traditional all-night party.

Rogers spent the next six days with Betsy before boarding a ship and sailing to South Carolina."

His early letters to Betsy are very loving in tone; he referred to her as "dearest dear," and soon after their marriage, wrote that he wished "once more to feast my Eyes on hir who so suddenly made me a prisoner to love" (November 9, 1761)

Elizabeth filed for divorce in 1775, claiming long separations, drunkenness, and infidelity.

After her divorce, which was granted by the New Hampshire General Assembly in 1778, Elizabeth married Captain John Roche of New Hampshire, and they had a son, John Roche, Jr. (1781-1807), known as "Jack." who joined the U.S. Navy in 1798 as a midshipman on the U.S. Ship Constitution and fought in the Quasi-war with France. In April 1801, he was appointed lieutenant. He died in 1807, at the age of 26.

Sources

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LJVZ-KCD
• "New Hampshire Births and Christenings, 1714-1904", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDJ5-7TP : 18 January 2020), Elizabeth Browne, 1741.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Joseph_Blackburn
• "War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America" by John F. Ross ISBN 978-0553384574
• Rogers-Roche Collection, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan
• http://cambridgehistory.org/research/winwod-serjeant-letters-1769-1840/