William Rogers (bef. 1613 - 1664)

Born before 7 Feb 1613 in Shottery, Warwickshire, England

Husband of Anne (Hall) Rogers — married 2 Feb 1631 (to 13 Jul 1664) in Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England

Descendants

Died 13 Jul 1664 after age 51 in Huntington, Suffolk, New York Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: S Willson [send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], and Ted Phillips [send private message]

William Rogers migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 288) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Disambiguation

Years of professionally conducted genealogical research shows William Rogers of Connecticut and Long Island was NOT the s/o Thomas Rogers, "Mayflower Passenger" (d. 1621), and NOT a direct descendant of John Rogers, "Protestant Martyr" (d. 1555). ^{[1] [2]}

Biography

William Rogers migrated from Shottery, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England to Long Island, New York.

William Rogers of Shottery, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England, later of Connecticut and Long Island, New York Colony.

William Rogers' origins are unknown. He arrived in 1640, residing in Wethersfield, and later Southampton, per Anderson, citing CA 50:64-68; NYGBR 60:102 (clue); Wethersfield Hist 1:293.^[3]

Parents

Years of debate about William Rogers' parentage have created a great deal of confusion about his ancestry. The history of this argument is prolific and need not be repeated herein. The facts of his ancestry rest on his baptism record alone. In this profile, certain records are cited so researchers may choose their pursuits of his ancestry with resources at hand.

Baptism

William, bapt. 07 Feb 1612/13, son of Thomas Rogers of Shottery, was born in Shottery, a hamlet of Stratford on Avon. He was baptized at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England. ^[4]

Marriage

William married Anna Hall 02 Feb 1630/31, Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon. ^[5]

After the death of William Rogers in Huntington, his widow Ann Rogers' name appears in the records from time to time. Ann, the widow of William ROGERS, made a will in which she signs as Ann ROGERS and mentions her children as Obediah, John, Noah, Hannah, and Mary and calls Obediah her oldest son. She does not mention Jonathan nor a daughter Ann, but it is known that Jonathan was a son because Noah refers to him as brother in a deed of meadow land which he gave him June 13, 1699 and witnessed by John ROGERS and Eleazer PLATT.

Children

England Births: ^[6]

1. Anna bapt'd 7 Mar 1631/32, Stratford on Avon
2. Obadiah bapt'd 29 Sep 1633, Stratford on Avon
3. Jonathan bapt'd 4 Sep 1636, Stratford on Avon

• No other births of children to this family are recorded in Stratford-on-Avon records, nor any deaths or burials.

New England Births: (no birth records)

Sons John, Noah, Samuel, and dau.'s Mary and Hannah are mentioned (in that order) in his widow's will along with the aforementioned son Obadiah who is listed first along with his (un-named) son.

• A second Samuel, referred to as my sibe (i.e. my kin) follows, both Samuel references presumed by many to refer to one individual, either Samuel Titus (son-in-law, husband of Mary) or Samuel Messenger. Samuel Titus was will executor. Son Jonathan and dau. Anna were not mentioned. ^[7]

Immigration and Residences

Arriving from England to the British Colony of Conn., William and his family initially established land grants in Wethersfield,1637-1640. ^[8]

He is next recorded in Southampton (Long Island, NY) abt. 1643 and appears in town records in 1649 and on a 1651 tax list. ^[9]

By 1655 his son, Obadiah, is found in Southampton records as the primary resident on the Rogers farm, William and his wife removing to nearby Huntington (Long Island) and establishing the patent where early settlers formed the community of Huntington.^[9][8]

According to genealogist and historian Louis DeForest:

"On July 30, 1656, the Matinecock Sachem and other Indians deeded to William Rogers, Jonas Wood, and Thomas Wilkes, the land needed for the settlement of Huntington, Long Island. This is the last mention of William' Rogers on the records. There is no will nor settlement of estate, and nothing to show the date of his death except that the "Widow Rogers" appears in a deed in 1667."^[2]

Death

William died 13 July 1664 in Huntington, Suffolk, New York. ^[10]

Research Notes

Common Claims: widely repeated from historically inaccurate and outdated research publications long since corrected, but resurfaced for web-based audiences with their digitization. These items contain known errors that mix myth with fact and continue to be repeated online: Examples of perpetuating errors include the following:

According to records at the Shakespeare Birthplace, he lived and may have been born in "Harvard House" which was built by Thomas Rogers, his grandfather in 1595.^[11]

• Unverifiable: Shakespeares Birthplace Website currently has no references to William Rogers of Long Island.

William is believed to have come to the Colonies in 1635.

• Disproven: He was recorded as 'present' at his son Jonathon's baptism in Stratford on Avon in 1636.

There is considerable dispute over whether or not Thomas Rogers, passenger on the Mayflower, was William's father. Thomas died in the first winter after the Mayflower arrived.

• True: This "considerable" dispute originates in a mythology that has since been laid to rest. There has never been, nor is there now, lineal proof of descent. William was inserted into the Mayflower lineage in the late 1800s and the misrepresentation continued into the 1900s. ^[12]

William was related to the martyr through Thomas Matthew Rogers and also to Thomas Rogers, the builder of Harvard House in Stratford, England.

• False. His attachment to these lines was conjecture and has since been completely refuted. See Further Disambiguations for more explication of early sources that contributed to this error.

William came in the barque Phillip in June 1635.

• False: This is an early conjoining of two different men perpetuated by an erroneous biography published by W. R. Cutter in 1910 ^[13]; unwittingly perpetuated by a family researcher, John Swift Rogers, whose unpublished genealogy notes were used as a resource in the 1917 publication, Genealogy of a branch of the Mead family : with a history of the family in England and in America and appendixes of Rogers and Denton families.^[14] As previously mentioned, William was in England in 1636.
  • Learn more about Wm Rogers of the ship "Phillip" (select inline text link to be taken to profile): While a Wm. Rogers, age 35, is on the Phillip manifest, he was thirteen years older than William of this profile, who was just 22y when the Phillip departed Gravesend for Virginia. Incidentally, the Phillip was a transport ship carrying self-indentured servants and sentenced criminals required to make an oath of allegiance to the Church of England before being transported to Virginia (unlike William of Long Island who arrived to Connecticut unhindered by passage debts, servitude contracts, or criminal charges).^[15]

He was voted a freeman on 6 Mar 1649.

• True: He was already a landowner before 1640 in Wethersfield CT, a privilege held by freemen. While noted to have arrived in Southampton L.I. in 1643, he was made freeman there on the cited date. While his name was not on Southampton's list of freemen dated 08 May 1649, he was recorded on the list of townsmen, dated 10 May 1649. ^[16] (Note: A townsman was someone elected to a board ... to manage the town’s affairs. New arrivals and those who were not freemen did not qualify for the position. ^[17])

Conflicting marriage information (July 1 1634 in Aston juxta Birmingham) has been found in the "Midland Antiquary", which has church records of their marriage location and date.

• Update: Not his marriage record--there was another couple by the same names who lived out their lives in Aston Juxta, Birmingham, Warwickshire. They had at least two children. The husband died by 1641 when the wife is listed as a widow in Trinity parish records, Stratford on Avon^[18]

Biographical Sketch: by Frederick C. Hart, Jr., CG, FASG, FGBS ^[19]

From: Connecticut Ancestry Journal 239 (©2007). ^[20]

[citing] "Connecticut Ancestry" [Journal 239 -article by Hart Jr.^[19]]: William Rogers was born at Stratford-On-Avon, Warwickshire,England about 1612, and was baptized there on 7 February 1612/13, the son of one Thomas Rogers, whose identity has not been resolved by earlier researchers. He died at Huntington, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York "probably rather suddenly" on 13 July 1664.

It is important to note that William's father was not the Thomas Rogers who was among the passengers of the MAYFLOWER. One author describes the situation as follows:

"Thomas Rogers of Stratford-on-Avon, father of William Rogers was not Thomas Rogers of the 'Mayflower'. The Rogers family was numerous and prominent in Stratford-on-Avon. Thomas Rogers, Bailiff and alderman, who was buried February 20 1610/11, was of this family. This Thomas had at least 16 children, one becoming mother of the John Harvard of New England. The handsome Rogers House in Stratford-on-Avon which the alderman Thomas Rogers built in 1596 is believed to still be standing." ^[21]

Some authors have called him a member of the followers of the Rev. Richard Denton who settled in succession Wethersfield and Stamford, Connecticut, and Hempstead,on Long Island, but this appears to be an overstatement. William Rogers did in fact own property in Wethersfield by 1645, but he is not listed among the first settlers of that town who came from Watertown in 1635 and 1636. Although it is reasonable to presume that he spent some earlier time in Massachusetts, he is not mentioned in Savage's "Genealogical Dictionary" at all, and apparently did not leave any records elsewhere in new England prior to the land ownership in Wethersfield. Seversmith said he appeared "supposedly" in Boston in 1638, but gave no source for the statement. Seversmith also call him a "cousin" of Thomas Wickes/Wilkes of Wethersfield and Huntington.

He married Anna or Anne hall at Stratford-On-Avon on 2 February 1630/31. She survived her husband and died 22 November 1669 and 21 February 1669/70, the dates of he will and its probate. The suggestion by Miner and Jacobus that she was possibly Anne Sherman, daughter of Edmund Sherman of Dedham, England and Wethersfield, is NOT mentioned at all by Seversmith, and appears to have been superseded by Seversmith's more detailed discoveries. In particular, Seversmith noticed in the parish registers that Anne was probably identical with that Anne Hall, illegitimate daughter of Grace Hll, who was baptized at Sratford-on-Avon on 16 February 1612/13, less than one week after the baptism there of William Rogers. Anne's mother appears to have been Grace, daughter of robert "hawle", who was baptized at Stratford-on-Avon on 18 june 1583.

William Rogers was in Southampton, Long Island at an early time, but the exact sequence of his residences is not clear. The Southampton historian Mr. Howell gave the following account:

"William Rogers is mentioned as a resident of Southampton from 1642, so, at least, March 1645-6. In 1645 the Gen. Court of Connecticut mad him a grant of land. In 1649 he is made freeman. He appears to have had a home in Hempstead, for a few years previous to 1649. From 1649 to 1655 we find him an inhabitant of Southampton, and after this he disappears altogether...Subsequent to 1655, Obadiah Rogers is mentioned as residing on the homestead that William had occupied...Now it is probable that William gave the Southampton homestead to his son Obadiah about 1655, and with his wife and younger children removed to Huntington where he might have resided several years."

We do know that on 30 July 1656, Jonas Wood, William Rogers and Thomas Wilkes purchased the major portion of what would become the Huntington lands from Asharoken Montinnicok, Sachem, and the other native Americans "for and in consideration of 2 coates, fore shertes, seven quarts of licker and aleven ounces of powther." This agrees very well with Mr. Howell's estimate of the time William Rogers moved to Huntington.

William Rogers did not leave a will (at least not one that has survived), but the will of Anne Rogers of Huntington mentioned her son Obadiah and his eldest son (not identified by name), her sons John, Noah and Samuel, and her daughters mary and hannah. Miner and Jacobus found that "Although Jonathan was not named in the will, he was called brother by Noah in a conveyance and was certainly son of William, though possibly by a former wife." Seversmith presumed that Jonathan was left out because of a family disagreement, but a more plausible argument might be that Jonathan had already received his portion. At any rate, if Anne was indeed the person who married William Rogers in England in 1630, the Jonathan (baptized in 1636 and still living in 1669) must have been her son. samuel is felt by most writers to have been not her own child but the husband of her daughter Mary, probably Samuel Titus.

[Hart Jr citing] Herbert F. Seversmith, "Colonial Families of Long Island, New York and Connecticut", manuscript notebook #6 of 11, microfilm copy used at the Connecticut State Library, 780. Seversmith's treatment is by far the most complete one available, and is used extensively herein. Although the citations are at a minimum, he was a careful researcher and his work is highly regarded.

Sources

1. ↑ Stott, Clifford L. "The English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his wife Alice (Cosford) Rogers" in The Genealogist, Vol 10, No. 2 (Thomas Rogers Society, 1989) Article
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} DeForest, Louis E. The Ancestry of William Rogers of Long Island. Scholarly work. Essay. Genealogies of Long Island Families. genealogy. com, 2013. William Rogers
3. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Directory, published 2015. Reference page 288
4. ↑ Holy Trinity Parish Records - Baptisms. Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England. , Microfilm. Family Search. familysearch.org. citing William Rogers, 1613, citing Holy Trinity Parish Records. Film number 1067507. Image.
5. ↑ Holy Trinity Parish Records - Marriages. Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England. Microfilm. Family Search. familysearch.org. citing William Rogers, 1630, citing Holy Trinity Parish Records, film number ---. Image.
6. ↑ Children's Baptism Records. Holy Trinity Parish Records, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England. Digital Transcripts. FreeREG, n.d.. freereg.org. Anna; Obadiah; Jonathan
7. ↑ See Anne Hall
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Selleck, Lillian Lounsberry (Miner). One Branch of the Miner Family with Extensive Notes on the Wood Lounsberry Rogers and Fifty other Allied Families of Connecticut and Long Island. New Haven, CT: Jacobus, 1928. Internet Archives. Open Library. archive.org.p50-55.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Howell, George. The early history of Southampton, L. I., New York. Albany : Weed, Parsons and Co., 1887. Internet Archive, 2014. archive.org. p39 #27.
10. ↑ Connecticut Ancestry. Journal 239 - November 2007 - Vol. 50, No. 2. "Ancestry of William Weed of Stamford and Darien, Connecticut - Continued by Frederick C. Hart, Jr., CG..." incl. surnames Brush, Rogers, Merwin, Wickes, Conklin. Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc., Stamford CT. connecticutancestry.org. Indexed Journals (membership req'd to access). Qtd at Darlene's Family Genealogy. Website. DK Donovan, compiler. dkdonovan.com, n.d. Family Tree Profile, William Rogers
11. ↑ Rogers, Bryant. (1999) William Rogers of Long Island.
12. ↑ See Thomas Rogers b. 1571; See Further Disambiguations for more explication of early sources that contributed to genealogical errors.
13. ↑ Cutter, William R. Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts. New York: Lewis Historical Pub., 1910. p2691. Note: erroneous data in this bio has been corrected by later research.
14. ↑ Source containing ancestry errors: Genealogy of a branch of the Mead family : with a history of the family in England and in America and appendixes of Rogers and Denton families, L. E. Weaver, editor. Rochester, N.Y., 1917, pp. 49-51. Internet Archive, 2010. archive.org. "Rogers." Appendix A, citing John Swift Rogers).
15. ↑ Great Migration: Passengers of the Phillip, 1635. geni.com. manifest transcript & werelate.org. passenger list
16. ↑ Howell, George. The early history of Southampton, L. I., New York. Albany : Weed, Parsons and Co., 1887. Internet Archive, 2014. archive.org. p39 #27.
17. ↑ Early New England Public Offices. Miner Descent, 2013. minerdescent.com
18. ↑ General research notes per C-213 sourcing The Midland Antiquary, Volumes 3-4. William Carter, ed. London: various, 1884. Google Books. googlebooks.com. p70 and Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon parish records.
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} Frederick C. Hart, Jr., CG, FASG, FGBS, Connecticut Ancestry Society, Board of Governors, Genealogist, contributing editor. Connecticut Ancestry Society, PO Box 249, Stamford CT 06904-0249, United States. genealogist <at> connecticutancestry.org (as of Jan 2022)
20. ↑ Connecticut Ancestry. Journal 239 - November 2007 - Vol. 50, No. 2. "Ancestry of William Weed of Stamford and Darien, Connecticut - Continued by Frederick C. Hart, Jr., CG..." incl. surnames Brush, Rogers, Merwin, Wickes, Conklin. Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc., Stamford CT. connecticutancestry.org. Indexed Journals (membership req'd to access). Qtd at Darlene's Family Genealogy. Website. DK Donovan, compiler. dkdonovan.com, n.d. Family Tree Profile, William Rogers
21. ↑ FN1: ibid, citing text from an unidentified author: said text is derived from a scholarly essay by Louis E. DeForest, publ. "Genealogies of Long Island Families": "The Ancestry of William Rogers of Long Island." n.p., n.d., found fully reproduced online at Information about William Rogers. Alan Lopez, compiler. Genealogy.com. Article Reprint)

See Also:

• Weaver, Lucius Egbert. Genealogy of a branch of the Mead family : with a history of the family in England and in America and appendixes of Rogers and Denton families Rochester, N.Y., 1917, pp. 49-51.

According to a previous profile contributor, information for profile building was resourced from:

• Huntington Town Records (printed in three volumes)
• New England Historical and Genealogical Register
• New York Genealogical and Biographical Record
• Pellateau's Long Island Wills
• Genealogical Directory of the First Settlers of New England, James Savage
• The American Genealogist V 10, p 59 Donald Lines Jacobus
• Various monographs and accounts on file in the New Haven ColonyHistorical Society and Yale University Libraries."
• Eglee, Charles H., 1950. One Branch of the Sammis Family of LongIsland. Private Publication, New Haven, CT
• Privately hosted family genealogy web pages no longer online.

• Rootsweb: Article (unidentified post). http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/ROGERS/1996-09/0842314996
• Decker Genealogy. Martha Decker, compiler. The Gene Shed. deckernet.com, n.d. http://deckernet.com/Genealogy/DeckerGenealogy/9722.htm.

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Rogers-2816 created through the import of Ancestors of PBHowe.ged on Jun 6, 2011 by Buck Howe.
• WikiTree profile Rogers-3081 created through the import of Lupton file.ged on Jul 7, 2011 by Kim Ostermyer.
• Bio rewritten. Research notes, sources, edits, parenthetical remarks added -per kc 03:02, 16 September 2019 (UTC); upated 03:54, 7 January 2022 (UTC)