Family and Education

bap. 14 June 1676, o. surv. s. of Sir John Rogers, 1st Bt., of Blachford, common councilman of Plymouth 1684-d.,1 M.P. Plymouth 1698-1700, by Mary, da. of Spencer Vincent, alderman of London, of Lombard St., London. m. 9 May 1698, Mary, da. of Sir Robert Henley of the Grange, nr. Farnborough, Hants, prothonotary of the King’s bench, 5s. (3 d.v.p.) 5da. suc. fa. Apr. 1710.

Offices Held

Recorder, Plymouth 1713, mayor 1722-3, 1741-2.

Biography

Rogers, whose family had settled in Plymouth by the seventeenth century, was descended from the Rev. John Rogers, the first martyr of Queen Mary’s reign. Amassing a fortune from pilchard curing, his father purchased a considerable estate in the town, including apparently the manor of West Hooe, and was made a baronet in 1698.2 Returned as a Whig for Plymouth in Anne’s last Parliament and reelected in 1715, Rogers voted erratically, opposing the septennial bill in 1716, supporting the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts, but opposing the peerage bill in 1719. He did not stand again, withdrawing at the last moment, but was active in Plymouth politics until his death 21 Jan. 1744.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

• 1. HMC 9th Rep. 281, 282.
• 2. Add. 24121, f. 200; Lysons, Devonshire, i. cxv; H. F. Whitfield, Plymouth, 158.