Featured Ancestor

Thomas Rogers, Mayflower Pilgrim

10th Great Grandfather of Kelly Dunn (Richmond)

Thomas Rogers, Signer of the Mayflower Compact

Kelly’s 10x Great Grandfather was a Pilgrim on the Mayflower and one of 42 signers of the Mayflower Compact.  He arrived on Cape Cod on November 11, 1620.  Sadly did not survive the first winter.  His son John followed him to the new world, John is Kelly’s 9x Great Grandfather and he arrived in 1630.

The Mayflower Compact

The “Mayflower Compact” was signed on 11 November 1620 onboard the Mayflower shortly after she came to anchor off Provincetown Harbor.  The Pilgrims had obtained permission from English authorities to settle in Virginia, whose northern border at the time extended up to what is now New York.  The Pilgrims had originally intended to settle near the mouth of the Hudson River, but due to dangerous shoals and a near shipwreck on their attempt to head south, they decided instead to plant themselves outside the bounds of the Virginia Company patent–which caused some “mutinous speeches” among some of the passengers.  The Mayflower Compact was an attempt to establish a temporary, legally-binding form of self-government until such time as the Company could get formal permission from the Council of New England.  This formal permission came in the form of the Pierce Patent of 1621.

Thomas Rogers

Thomas Rogers  was born circa 1571 at Watford, co. Northamptonshire, England. He was the son of William Rogers and Eleanor. Thomas Rogers married Alice Cosford, daughter of George Cosford and Margart (Willis?), on 24 October 1597 at Watford, co. Northamptonshire, England.

Our earliest known encounter with Pilgrim Thomas Rogers was on 25 June 1618 when he became a citizen of Leiden, Holland, vouched for by William Jepson, formerly of Worksop, Notts., and by Roger Wilson, formerly of Sandwich, Kent Co. Engalnd.  On 1 April 1620 Thomas sold his Leiden house on the Barbarasteeg for 300 guilders, in preparation for the journey to New England.

Governor Bradford says in his history of the Plymouth settlement that on board the Mayflower were “Thomas Rogers and Joseph his son; his other children came afterwards……Thomas Rogers died in the first sickness but his son Joseph is still living (1650) and is married and hath six children. The rest of Thomas Rogers’ [children] came over and are married and have many children.” Therefore we know that Thomas and his son Joseph arrived at Cape Cod aboard the ship Mayflower and on 11 November 1620 according to their calendar, or 21 November on ours, Thomas was one of forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact. Thomas did not live through the rigorous winter which carried off half the group but young Joseph, like so many of the children, did survive.

Recent discoveries show that Thomas had a family living in Leiden, Holland, when the 1622 Poll Tax was taken. In the Over “t Hoff Quarter, in a house with other Pilgrim families in St. Peter’s Churchyard west-side, were Jan Thomas, orphan from England without means; Elsgen Rogiers, widow of Thonis Rogiers, an Englishwoman; and Lysbeth and Grietgen her children, poor people. Translated this could read John, son of Thomas; Elizabeth Rogers, widow of Thomas; and Elizabeth and Margaret, her children. At that period the word orphan meant that either or both parents were dead.

In the 1623 Plymouth Colony land division, Joseph Rogers was allotted two acres-one for himself and one on behalf of his late father. He may have been living in the household of Governor Bradford with who he was grouped on 22 May 1627, in the division of cattle. Joseph and twelve other inhabitants of Plymouth received “an heyfer of the last year which was of the Great white-back cow that was brought over in the Ann and two shee goats.”

Governor Bradford’s statement that the rest of Thomas Rogers’ children came over and married and had children, seems clearly to indicate that more than one of his children came to New England after 1620. We know that his son John came to Plymouth about 1630. Although many other male Rogers immigrants have been claimed as sons of Thomas the Pilgrim, none of the claims has been proved and some have been disproved. Therefore it seems likely that at least one of the Rogers daughters who were living in Holland in 1622 came over. John and Joseph Rogers each named a daughter Elizabeth, perhaps thereby indicating that their sister Elizabeth lived in New England. Unfortunately extensive research has failed to uncover any further evidence.

John Rogers came to Plymouth about 1630, when the last of the Leiden contingent arrived and was in Plymouth Colony on 25 March 1633 when he was taxed 9 shillings. The proof of his identity lies in a grant made 6 April 1640 to “Joseph Rogers and John Rogers his brother…fifty acres apeece of upland….at the North River.” Both then had growing families to carry forward the Rogers heritage, although only Joseph’s descendants would carry forward the Rogers name beyond the fourth generation.”

Children of Thomas Rogers [Mayflower Pilgrim] and Alice Cosford

  • Thomas Rogers3 24 Mar 1598/99

  • Richard Rogers3b. 12 Mar 1599

  • Joseph Rogers+3 23 Jan 1602/3, d. between 2 and 15 Jan 1677/78

  • John Rogers+3 6 Apr 1606, d. bt 26 Aug 1691 – 20 Sep 1692

  • Elizabeth Rogers4 26 Dec 1609

  • Margaret Rogers4 30 May 1613

Citations

  1. Ann T. [Revised by], (Originally compiled by Alice W. A. Westgate) Reeves,Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620: Family of Thomas Rogers (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2000). Hereinafter cited as Rogers-Silver.
  2. [S14] Clifford L. Stott, “English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and His Wife Alice (Cosford) Rogers”,Genealogist, The 10 no.2 (1989). Hereinafter cited as “English Ancestry of Thomas Rogers.”
  3. [S1] Ann T. [Revised by], (Originally compiled by Alice W. A. Westgate) Reeves,Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620: Family of Thomas Rogers (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2000), 1:1. Hereinafter cited as Rogers-Silver.
  4. [S1] Ann T. [Revised by], (Originally compiled by Alice W. A. Westgate) Reeves,Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620: Family of Thomas Rogers (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2000), 1:2. Hereinafter cited as Rogers-Silver.

John Rogers, Son of Thomas Rogers

John Rogers was baptized on 6 April 1606 at Watford, co. Northamptonshire, England. He was the son of Thomas Rogers [Mayflower Pilgrim] and Alice Cosford.2 John Rogers John Rogers probably came to Plymouth about 1630 with the last of the Pilgrims to leave the Separatist enclave. He was first taxed in 1633 at Plymouth and on 20 Oct 1634 he bought a lot at Duxbury from Edmund Chandler. With his brother Joseph and others, he had a grant of fifty acares at Marshfield 6 April 1640. At Duxbury he was a surveyor of highways in 1644, deputy to the General Court in 1657, and constable in 1666. As an “ancient freeman” of the colony, he was granted land at Taunton on 3 June 1662. He had another hundred acres on Coteticutt (Titicut) River in 1667 and in 1673 another hundred acres on the northeast side of Taunto. He is call “weaver” in a deed conveying one acre in Duxbury to Wrestling Brewster in 1680. His will dated 26 Aug 1691 was proved 20 Sept 1692. He married Anna Churchman on 16 April 1639 at Plymouth.1 John Rogers Rogers is granted land next to Mr. Vassells’ farm at the North River. This land totals to 50 acres of upland and meadow ground. He also received some other small divisions of land, and a joint holding. His brother John also received 50 acres in the same area, together with Constant and Thomas Southworth.