Jeremiah Rogers of Dorchester and Lancaster

Jeremiah ROGERS immigrated about 1640. He died in 1676 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., MA.

(url: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Bt97b7IwMOEJ:freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~steeles/Steele/d137.htm+%22jeremiah+rogers%22+salem&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com )

So far, in my 30 years of research I have not found proof of the birth of this Jeremiah nor of his parents. He died in 1676 at Dorchester, Massauchusetts but the death was recorded in Lancaster where he had been a resident.

Ada Williams Rogers, a Jeremiah Rogers researcher wrote in 1950, "Came to Dorchester, MA about 1631, but it is not known what ship he came on nor where he came from, although he may have come from North Benfleet, Essex County, Eng. as Jeremy Rogers witnessed the will of Elizabeth, wife of John Lake of Great Franton Hall, N. Benfleet, Essex Co., Eng. on 5-1-1616. His oldest son, Jeremiah, was born in Dorchester [MA] about 1650. Jeremiah was one of the earliest settlers of Lancaster, MA., where on 9-4-1654 he subscribed to the laws of the church. His estate as one of the first settlers was given as £310. In the laying out of the second division of "medows" 2-5-1659 Jeremiah received lot 30 and "Goodman Rogers" was also given a corner of the common. His house lot "lying on the neck of the east side near the brook, 10 acres near Quasponkin Hill" bounded by the common and the swamp, and 10 more south of Pine Hill. The Rogers house lot is cut in twain by the old turnpike and included in the upper brick yard of Samuel R. Damon, the Anthony Lane homestead, and the lands of Emory White. He also had other land as in 1663 Jeremiah sold 100 acres of his outlying land to Henry Kimball, a blacksmith of Boston. On 3-12-1710 his sons, Jeremiah of Salem, wheelright, and Jehosophat of Topsfield, tailor, sold their father's Lancaster lands to Edward Phelps, a weaver from Andover. Jeremiah returned to Dorchester at the time of the massacre at Lancaster and died 9-26-1676. It is too bad that we know so little of the flight from Lancaster which was attacked by the Indians on 2-10-1675-6 as this must have been a terrific experience in the dead of winter with seven children under 16 to get to the safety of Dorchester. This was during King Phillip's War. Mary Rowlandson, who was captured at Lancaster, wrote of her experiences (see Willard's "Naratives of Indian Wars").

One interesting item about Jeremiah is found in his petition to the court 8-4-1670 that he be "granted freedom for training as a common soldier" as he had been an officer. He states that he was a "sergant in the military company and was dismissed for reasons best known to the major and not for any neglect or misdemeanor in my place that I know of." He was called to arms as a common soldier which he contended was illegal as he had been an officer. A petition by an officer throws some light on the story as they apparently felt that it was very unjust of him to have recourse to the court rather than to settle the matter amicably among themselves. He stated that Jeremiah had been put in place of another who could not serve but the company did not like him so they chose another in his place. We are left up in the air as only the two petitions survive and the decision of the court is unknown. Jeremiah's name is spelled variously, Rodgers, Rogers."

The following quotation is an excerpt from an address by Rev. George M. Bodge, delivered at the 150th anniversary of the First Congregational Society of Leominster, Mass, as printed in the Leominster Enterprise, September 30, 1893. [about John Rogers of Leominster's ancestors]

Beginning in the middle of a paragraph.."I will tell you briefly the facts without the long details of the hunt. I found from the published records of Lancaster, compiled by a careful and eminent antiquarian--Mr. Henry S. Nourse,--that Jeremiah Rogers, with Abia, his wife, settled in Lancaster among the early settlers. In correspondence with him [Nourse] I learned that he [Jeremiah Rogers] came from Dorchester, and sometime before the destruction of Lancaster, went back to Dorchester with his family, and died there in 1676, and his wife Abia and two daughters died there two years later, 1678, of the small-pox scourge which raged that year. This last from Dorchester records. A gentleman from Salem sent me some manuscript notes which showed that Jeremiah of Salem and his wife Abigail Trescot came from Dorchester. Finally I found the key to the relationship, in the record of a deed from this Jeremiah of Salem of the land in Lancaster which had belonged to the settler Jeremiah. This carried the genealogy back a whole generation and we have the descent of our Leominster first minister from the probable emigrant of this name. And it stands, Jeremiah and Abia Rogers of Dorchester about 1650, when, or near that, their oldest son Jeremiah was born. (The family were settled in Lancaster from 1658 to about 1674, the father taking up his claim in 1654). Jeremiah Jr., a wheelwright, and his wife Abigail lived in Salem in 1693. Their son John was born in Salem March 22, 1684. Graduated from Harvard in the class of 1705. He was settled as the second minister of Boxford in 1709 and married that same year Susanne Marston of Salem. They had children of whom John the oldest son was born September 24th, 1712, so in a way we are celebrating his birthday (leaving out the matter of "old style" and "new style") John graduated at Harvard College in 1732. Probably taught school and preached in various places until he settled in Leominster at the age of thirty-one years."

(Source: url:http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/26554827/person/1890624636/media/2?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid%7cpgNum)

"Lotts were taken as followeth without without any disturbance or distraction." "Jerimiah Rogers 30"

(Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=687odzw5rKYC&vq=jeremiah&pg=PA72#v=snippet&q=jerimiah&f=false)

"Jeremiah Rodgers," p. 146 "The following list comprises the names of those who lived in the town, and who had reached the age of twenty-one years, up to the year 1700" (Ebenezer Clapp, History of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts By Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society, Boston, Mass., 1859, p. 143.)

"John Pierce (spelt Pears), admitted freeman in 1631; selectman in 1633, '36 and '41; proprietor of lands in 1656. There were two of this name in Dorchester, both early. One was a cooper. His first wife, that we have any account of, was Mary; his second, Rebecca. His children were - Nehemiah, born February 17, 1631-32; Samuel, probably older, as he is mentioned first; Mehitable, who married Jeremiah Rogers; Mary, born March 6, 1638; Mercy, and one other child, probably Exercise." (Ebenezer Clapp, History of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts By Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society, Boston, Mass., 1859, p. 71)

[Source: Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33]

JOHN PIERCE

ORIGIN: Unknown MIGRATION: 1630 FIRST RESIDENCE: Dorchester REMOVES: Boston 1655 OCCUPATION: Cooper. FREEMAN: 18 May 1631 [MBCR 1:366]. EDUCATION: He signed his name to deeds and to the Dorchester agreement of 2 February 1646[/7] [DTR 75]. OFFICES: Deputy for Dorchester to General Court, 13 March 1638/9 [MBCR 1:250]. Dorchester selectman, 8 October 1633, 2 October 1636, 13 February 1638/9 (six months), 1 February 1640/1 [DTR 3, 19, 38, 44]. Rater, 2 June 1634 [DTR 7]. Lot layer, 1637, 1638 [DTR 29, 34]. Fenceviewer, 1637/8 [DTR 32]. ESTATE: In the grant of 1 February 1635 John Pearce received two acres at Dorchester [DTR 15]. In the calves' pasture he received two acres on 2 January 1637/8 [DTR 28]. He purchased two acres of marsh from John Bingham before 23 April 1638 [DTR 33]. He was granted lot number twenty-two of four acres in the meadow lands beyond the Naponset river [DTR 321]. With most of the men of Dorchester, he agreed to arbitration regarding the fencing about the great lots, 2 February 1646[/7] [DTR 76]. On 28 February 1642[/3] John Pearce of Dorchester, cooper, sold to Richard Curtis of Dorchester, shoemaker, "my old dwelling house and one acre more or less of planting land behind it" in Dorchester, also one acre and a half of meadow before the house [SLR 2:152]. On 18 October 1655 John Peirce of Boston, cooper, and Rebecca Peirce his wife, "late wife of the said Thomas Wheeler" of Boston, tailor, acknowledged the sale of land by Thomas Wheeler in his lifetime for which no deed was entered [SLR 3:296-98]. On 2 December 1658 Stephen Greenelefe of Boston, blacksmith, sold to John Pearce of Boston, cooper, one dwelling house with the garden & orchard belonging to it [SLR 3:190-91]. In his will, dated 16 September 1661 and proved 11 October 1661, "John Pears of Boston ... in consideration of my unfeigned love unto Rebecca my wife and also by way of restoration of what I received with her & have enjoyed of her former husband's estate, I leave the house & land we live in freely unto her & also out of that little God hath given me, my will is she have in such things as may be to her comfort and content to the value of £13 in necessaries as bed, table, chair, pot, & other household stuff"; "for my own house and land that I lately purchased in Boston" to "my wife during the time of her widowhood ... one half of the yearly rent & profit of the same"; "the other half of the yearly profit ... for the education & maintenance of my son Samuell, & after the death or day that my wife shall change her condition of life by marriage" all to Samuel; to "my son Nehemiah Pears ... all my working tools & implements belonging to my calling with all the timber & stuff to work upon be it at home or elsewhere abroad desiring he may by the help of God be a good husband in the use of it & then I hope he may live like a man"; for "my daughter the wife of Jeremiah Rog[e]rs ... whereas her husband Jeremiah Rog[e]rs stands deeply indebted unto me ... freely give [the sum of £20] to my daughter and her children and also 20s. apiece unto her three children in money"; to "my three daughters Mary, Mercy & Exercise" residue "at Boston or Dorchester or elsewhere"; if any of them die before age eighteen years or marriage, their portions to be divided amongst the survivors; "loving friends William Killcupp & William Robinson & John Wisewall" advisors [SPR 1:374]. This will was ruled imperfect and administration granted to Mr. John Wisewall, William Robinson and William Killcupp. BIRTH: By about 1606 based on estimated date of first marriage. DEATH: Boston 17 September 1661 [BVR 81]. MARRIAGE: (1) By 1631 Parnell _____. She died Dorchester October 1639 [sic, probably 1637] [DVR 3]. (The record of Parnell's death immediately follows the record for the birth and death of her last child, Nehemiah, and the date of death given for her is the same as that given for this Nehemiah. Since this date of death conflicts with the date of birth of the first child of John's second wife, the date must be in error. Parnell probably died at the time of giving birth to Nehemiah or soon after.) (2) By 1638 Mary _____. She died Dorchester in 1647. (3) Boston 10 August 1654 (as "John Peirce of Dorchester") Rebecca (_____) Wheeler [BVR 48], widow of Thomas Wheeler of Boston [SLR 3:296-98].

CHILDREN:

With first wife

i JOSEPH, b. Dorchester 30 October 1631 [DVR 3]; not named in father's will.

ii ABIGAIL, b. Dorchester 17 July 1633 [DVR 3, i.e. Dorchester Births, Marriages, and Deaths to the End of 1825, Twenty-first Report of the Boston Record Commissioners (Boston 1890)]; m. by 1653 Jeremiah Rogers (eldest child bp. Dorchester 10 May 1653 [DChR 162, i.e. Records of the First Church at Dorchester in New England, 1636-1734 (Boston 1891)]). (Savage gives Mehitabel as the forename of the wife of Jeremiah Rogers, but this was the name of one of the daughters of Jeremiah and Abigail [DVR 6, i.e. Dorchester Births, Marriages, and Deaths to the End of 1825, Twenty-first Report of the Boston Record Commissioners (Boston 1890); DChR 69, i.e. Records of the First Church at Dorchester in New England, 1636-1734 (Boston 1891)].)

iii JOHN, b. Dorchester 3 March 1634[/5] [DVR 3]; d. Dorchester 30 March 1634 [sic, probably 1635] [DVR 3].

iv NEHEMIAH, b. Dorchester 12 July 1637 [DVR 3]; d. Dorchester October 1639 [DVR 3].

With second wife

v MARY, b. Dorchester 6 March 1638[/9] [DVR 3]; probably died before the birth of her sister of the same name who was not yet eighteen when her father wrote his will.

vi NEHEMIAH, b. Dorchester 17 January 1641 [DVR 3 (the record as published is for 1631, but it comes after the entry for Mary, and after the birth for the earlier Nehemiah, so the entry must be a simple error for 1641)]; m. (1) by 1663 Phebe Blantin (eldest child b. Boston 31 August 1663 [BVR 89]), daughter of William Blantin (on 16 October 1696 "Mearcy Pearse of Boston ... spinster, daughter of Nehemiah Pearse late of Boston, cooper, deceased," sold to Thomas Peck Jr. a parcel of land in Boston "formerly known to be the reputed land and estate of my grandfather William Planting Senior, deceased" [SLR 14:297-98; see also SLR 12:383-85]); m. (2) shortly after 18 September 1684 Anne (Addington) Moseley, daughter of Isaac Addington and widow of Samuel Moseley (or Maudsley) [SLR 13:420 (marriage contract); Sewall 94].

vii MARY, b. say 1644; minor (under eighteen) in father's will; no further record.

viii MERCY, b. say 1646; minor (under eighteen) in father's will; no further record.

ix EXERCISE, b. say 1648; minor (under eighteen) in father's will; no further record.

x SAMUEL, b. say 1650; m. by 1673 Mary _____ (son Samuel b. at Boston on 28 January 1673[/4?] [BVR 129]). He was a cooper [SLR 8:74, 198, 215, 12:64 (and compare with SLR 3:190-91)].

COMMENTS:

On 31 August 1657 "Jno. Peirce is admitted an inhabitant [of Boston] upon the testimony of James Everell and Isaak Colimore" [BTR 1:139]. On 31 May 1658 "Jno. Peirce is admitted an inhabitant" of Boston, sponsored by Nathaniel Bishop [BTR 1:143, 146]. These records appear to be for two different men, although it is possible they were one. There may have been yet another man of the same name resident in Boston before the date of either of these admissions, for on 9 March 1656/7 a John Pierce was a Boston highway surveyor [BTR 1:134; see also BTR 1:154]. In any case, John Pierce of Dorchester had moved to Boston by 18 October 1655, as evidenced by his deed of that date [SLR 3:296-98].

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE:

In 1888 Frederick Clifton Pierce published one of his usual confused productions, a Pearce Genealogy, Being the Record of the Posterity of Richard Pearce, An Early Inhabitant of Portsmouth, in Rhode Island ... (Rockford, Illinois, 1888). He made John Pierce of Dorchester and Boston a son of this elder Richard Pierce, and the latter was supposedly brother of WILLIAM PIERCE, mariner, of Boston, and father of a younger Richard Pierce of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The elder Richard does not seem to have existed, nor is there evidence that any of these other three men are related to one another. (Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33, url: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=greatmigrationindex&rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&msT=1&gss=angs-d&gsfn=jeremiah&gsln=rogers&uidh=2r7&ct=913 )

"Rogers, Jeremiah (-1676) & Abiah [Pierce] (not Mehitable) (-1678/9); m 1652; Dorchester/Lancaster." (Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1985, 1987, 1990, p. 633.)

ROGERS, Jeremiah (-1676) & Abiah [PIERCE] (not Mehitable) (-1678/9); b 1652 [birthdate of first child]; Dorchester/Lancaster

ROGERS, Jeremiah (-1717) & 1/wf Dorcas ?; 11 Dec 1672; Lancaster ROGERS, Jeremiah (-1717) & 2/wf Abigail (TRESCOTT) [WEEKS], w Ammiel; b 1693 [birthdate of first child]; Salem

(Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, Md., 1985. p. 633, url: http://www.amazon.com/England-Marriages-prepared-publication-Elizabeth/dp/0806311029#reader_0806311029 search with 633)

TRESCOTT-ROGERS. -Samuel Trescott of Milton, Mass., and Margaret his wife, one of the daughters of Jeremiah Rogers, late of Lancaster, deceased, convey to Edward Phelps of Andover, Mass., interest in the estate of said Jeremiah Rogers, in Lancaster, as well by right of said Mary as by purchase made by said Trescott of Abiah Warren of Boston, widow, one other daughter of said Jeremiah Rogers, May 31, 1710. (Middlesex Co. Deeds, vol. xv, p. 261.)

Ichabod Rogers of Lancaster, cordwainer, Jeremiah Rogers of Salem, wheelwright, and Jehosaphat Rogers of Topsfield, tailor, sons of Jeremiah Rogers of Lancaster, also convey their interest in their father's estate to Edward Phelps of Andover, May 12, 1710. (Middlesex Co. Deeds, vol. xv, p. 261,262.) (NEHGS. New England Historic and Genealogical Register. NEHGS, Boston. Vol 60, pp. 313-4, url:http://www.archive.org/stream/newenglandhisto55unkngoog#page/n335/mode/1up)

"1676 September 26 Jeremiah Rogers, at Dorchester"