Bathsheba (Rogers) Fox (1650 - 1711)

Born 30 Dec 1650 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut

Ancestors

Wife of Richard Smith — married 4 Mar 1670 (to 1682) in New London, Connecticut

Wife of Samuel Fox — married about 1690 in New London, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 23 Nov 1711 at age 60 in New London, New London, Connecticut

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Homer Hopper [send private message]

Biography

Bathshebe or Bathshua Rogers, daughter of James, born Dec. 30, 1650, in Stratford, Ct.; died Nov. 23, 1711, in New London ; married (1) Mar. 4, 1669—70, Richard Smith, died —, 1682; married (2) Samuel, son of Thomas Fox of Concord, Mass., died Sept. 4, 1727, aged 77. She was his third wife; she was baptized in 1676, and although enrolled in the Newport, R. I., Seventh Day Baptist church, she afterward became a zealous Rogerene, aiding the cause in many ways, for which she suffered long and cruel imprisonments. She was devotedly attached to her brother John.

Children (Smith) :

1. Anne,b. ——.
2. Elizabeth Smith, b. 1672 ; m. William Camp of N. L.
3. James Smith, bapt. April 12, 1674; m. Elizabeth Rogers, dau. of Jonathan Rogers and Naomi Burdick.
4. John, b. ——; settled in North Parish.
5. Bathsheba Smith, b. 1678 ; m. John Rogers son of John Rogers and Elizabeth Griswold.
6. Richard, b. ; d. 1682, unm.

After her first husband died in 1682, she and her children lived in her parents' house. Her mother was in poor health, and Bathshua was the housekeeper.

Children (Fox)

1. Samuel Fox, Jr., who married his cousin, Rachel Rogers

By her second husband she had one child: Samuel Fox, Jr., who married his cousin, Rachel Rogers (Jonathan). Although Miss Caulkins does not credit this son to Samuel and Bathsheba, yet a deed of gift of land to him from Samuel and Bathsheba Fox calls him “our son.” A Bathsheba Fox of about the same age, who married Robert Chapman, may also have been another child of Bathsheba (Rogers) Fox.^[1]

Servants and Slaves

The Rogers household, where Bathshua grew up and also lived from 1682 to 1690, included these enslaved and indentured persons:

• Adam Rogers, freed c. 1691.
• Maria
• Joan Rogers, daughter of Maria and wife of John Jackson, born c. 1680 and freed in 1703.
• Hagar, married William Wright, freed c. 1691.
• William Wright: an Algonquin who indentured himself from 1685-1691 in order to buy Hagar's freedom.

Her brother John Rogers purchased John Jackson in 1686 and freed him c. 1690. Jackson later married Joan Rogers.

When Bathshua married Samuel Fox in 1690, she took young Joan with her to that household. Bathshua freed Joan in 1703, and Joan went to live with her husband John Jackson at a farm nearby. Joan's two oldest children--Adam and Miriam--remained as slaves in the Fox household until they were sold, Adam in 1727 to Joshua Hempstead and Miriam in the 1720s to Nicholas Lathrop in Norwich^[2]

Death

Bathshua died in 1711.^[3]

Questions ?

The Whitney Book shows that Elizabeth married Whitney in 1674. That date seems certain. (Or is there a typo in Whitney?) So Elizabeth had to have been born about 1655.

Bathsheba Rogers, the daughter of James was born in 1650, so she can not be the mother of this Elizabeth.

So who is Adam? That may make a better connection. Entered 8 July 2012 Phil Smith.

May be the sister to Adam Rogers--some of the connections here are problematic, but she was a member of the Rogers family who started the Rogerene movement, a Christian separatist religion. Much of what this small group did paved the way for later Abolitionist developments in New England. Bathsheba was a member of the Rogerenes which brought great persecution upon her. Some submissions to Rootsweb indicate that her father was James Rogers while others link her to John Rogers. Both were major figures in the Rogerene movement. I believe it more likely that she is daughter of James Rogers.

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #SJSRogers p. 44
2. ↑ di Bonaventura, Allegra. For Adam's Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England (p. 281). Liveright. Kindle Edition.
3. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148420134/bathsheba-smith

• SJSRogers Author: James Swift Rogers. Title: James Rogers of New London, CT and His Descendants. 1902. Page 44. This is a Google e-book Rogers of New London
• 'History of New London, Connecticut' pp 332, Caulkins, F, Carlisle, MA 1895
• Bartley, Scott Andrew. Marriages from the New London County Court Records, 1667–1670, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 2015) Vol. 170, WN 677, Page 23.