Thomas Rogers - my Eleventh Great-Grandfather & Mayflower Descendant
Lineage - Nancy Simmons to Josephine Martin to Edward
Martin to Francis Martin to Elizabeth Larkins to Margaret Davis to Deborah Stephens
to Robert Stephens to Thomas Stephens to Josiah Stephens to Remember Tisdale to
Anna Rogers to John Rogers to Thomas Rogers
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| Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882 |
One disaster that rises to the surface in my
research is the tragic death of Thomas Rogers, my Mayflower 11th great grandfather.
As a young man he joined the Separatist movement, married, moved his family to
Leiden to escape persecution in England, sold his home and made plans to travel
to the new world with his oldest son, left his family with friends in Leiden
and then died within three months of arriving in Plymouth. What a DISASTER!!
He was born to William and Eleanor Rogers circa
1571 at Watford, County Northamptonshire, England.[1] When
Thomas was about 14 years old his father died and we have record of him named
in his father's will in 1585.[2] On October 24, 1597 at the age of 26 he
married Alice Cosford, daughter of George and Margaret Cosford.[3]
In the late 16th century there was a
movement of people that were quite radical and were separating from the Church
of England. They strongly believed that the church had not separated enough
from the Catholic church and refused to sign an allegiance to the Church of
England under King James.[4] They
were willing to take a knee and risked their lives to stand up for freedom of the people
against State and Church.
 |
| Separatist in England |
who were looking for religious freedom. They joined another
Separatist group however this group was embroiled in scandal and controversy,
and in 1609 Thomas and Alice and their group, received permission from Leiden
to settle there in Holland.
 |
| St Peter & St Paul Church in Watford, Northamptonshire, England. |
The Pilgrims were refugees, fleeing religious
persecution in England and were looking for a city where they could live and
practice their religion. Leiden became that city. On February 22, 1617, Thomas
Rogers bought a house on the west side of the Barbarasteeg for 475 guilders.[6] Our earliest known
encounter with Pilgrim Thomas Rogers was on June 25, 1618 when he became a
citizen of Leiden, Holland.[7]
His occupation in Leiden records was given as a camlet merchant. Camlet
was a luxury fabric from Asia that was made of camel's hair or angora wool
mixed with silk.[8]
 |
| Thomas Rogers, occupation as a camlet, was made a burgher (citizen) in Leiden 25 June 1618 |
On April 1, 1620 Thomas sold his Leiden house on
the Barbarasteeg for 300 guilders. [9]He used
the money from the sale of his house to fund his trip to the new world. He
traveled with his oldest son, Joseph, and his wife and three younger children
stayed in Leiden. The children left with his wife were Elizabeth, Margaret, and
John and they were living in the house of Pilgrim Anthony Clemens, a bombazine weaver.[10] This
house still stands, the only one with Pilgrim connections that is largely
intact.[11]
 |
| The Only house of a Pilgrim that still stands today in Leiden where his wife and children lived. |
“After living in Leiden for almost 12 years, the
Separatists, by this time joined by many from other parts of England, made the
decision to leave Holland in favour of traveling together to build a new life
in Virginia, America – a land where they could still be English but practice
their religion freely.”[12]
The first thing the Separatist did was return to
England to get organized and find funding.
A prominent merchant agreed to advance the money and the Virginia
Company gave them permission to settle on the East Coast between the Chesapeake
Bay and the mouth of the Hudson River.[13] Much to
their surprise, King James gave them permission to leave if they did it
peaceably.
In August 1620, the Separatist and another group
of secular colonists set sail on two merchant ships: The Mayflower and the
Speedwell. Immediately after leaving port the Speedwell began to leak and both
ships returned to Plymouth. After
deciding to leave the Speedwell behind, the passengers had to decide who would
travel on the Mayflower and who would stay behind. Thomas Rogers and his son were chosen to
travel on the Mayflower. Because of the delay caused by the Speedwell, the
Mayflower had to cross the Atlantic during the peak of the storm season. As a result, the journey soon became a
disaster. Many of the passenger were so
seasick they could not get up and the waves were so rough that one passenger
was swept overboard only to make it back in the ship by grabbing hold of a
suspended rope.
Life on the Mayflower only got worse. After sixty-six days of miserable travel at
sea the ship finally reached the New World only to find they were in the wrong
place well north of the Virginia Company’s territory. They were off the coast
of our present state of Massachusetts and technically had no right to be
there. Under these unfortunate
circumstances 41 of the men on board created and signed a document they called
the Mayflower Compact. They established themselves as a legitimate
colony, called Plymouth. Thomas Rogers signed the Mayflower Compact that
established a self-government to be governed by elected officials and “just and
equal laws.”
 |
| Signing of the Mayflower Compact on board the Mayflower November 1620 |
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| Replica of the Mayflower Compact |
The colonists
spent the first winter living onboard the Mayflower. Only 53 passengers and
half the crew survived, being confined to the ship where disease and cold were
rampant. Thomas Rogers died the first winter in January or February, leaving
behind his 18-year old son Joseph.[14]
Children Elizabeth and Margaret apparently came to New England later, but where
they lived or whom they married remains unknown. Son John came to Plymouth
about 1630, and there married Anna Churchman on April 16, 1639.[15] My
family descends from John and Anna Churchman Rogers.
The first winter for the Pilgrims was a disaster. Forty-five of
the 102 Mayflower passengers died in the winter of 1620–21,
including Thomas Rogers. They were probably
suffering from scurvy and pneumonia caused by a lack of shelter in the cold,
wet weather. Although the Pilgrims
were not starving, their sea-diet was very high in salt, which
weakened their bodies on the long journey and during that first winter.
 |
| Memorial to Mayflower Passengers who died in during the first year. Coles Hill Burial Ground, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts |
Thomas Rogers’ life ended in the cold winter of 1621. The old and the young and most of the women died that winter. Thomas Roger’s eighteen-year-old son, Joseph, survived the harsh winter, married and had several children and died about 1677.[16] Thomas Rogers’ son John Rogers, who stayed in Leiden with his mother, eventually came to Plymouth about 1629 when the last of the Separatist arrived from Leiden. He married Anna Churchman April 16, 1639 [17]and this family line continues for 12 more generations to me and now 14 generations to my grandchildren.
[2] Stott, Clifford L.,
"The English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his Wife Alice
(Cosford) Rogers", The Genealogist, Volume 10, No 2. https://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/trleiden.html
[3]
[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). Page 1.
[4]
Mayflower Pilgrim Center, http://www.mayflowerpilgrimcentre.uk/
[5]
Stott, Clifford L., "The
English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his Wife Alice (Cosford)
Rogers", The Genealogist, Volume 10, No 2. https://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/trleiden.html
[6]
Bangs, Jeremy Dupertuis, "Pilgrim Homes in Leiden", The New
England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 154 pages 413-445.
[7]
Stott, Clifford L., "The English
Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his Wife Alice (Cosford)
Rogers", The Genealogist, Volume 10, No 2. https://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/trleiden.html
[9]
Bangs, page 414.
[10]
Wakefield, Robert S., “Mayflower Passengers Turner and Rogers: Probable
Identification pf Additional Children”, The American Genealogist, Volume 52,
pgs 110-113, (1976)
[11]
Bangs, page 415.
[12] “Who
Were the Separatists Mayflower Pilgrims”, The Pilgrim Fathers UK Origins
Association,
http://www.pilgrimfathersorigins.org/who-were-the-separatist-mayflower-pilgrims-.html
http://www.pilgrimfathersorigins.org/who-were-the-separatist-mayflower-pilgrims-.html
[13]
History.com. The Mayflower. https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/mayflower
[14] Ibid.
[15] [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). Page 2.
[16] Ibid,
page 5.
[17]
Ibid, page 7.
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