Caursines, through their influence with the papal see, procured Roger's summons to Rome, and the bishop, unable through ill-health to obey, was compelled to yield. Roger was a witness to the reissue of Magna Charta in 1236, and quarrelled with Archbishop Edmund (Rich) [q. v.] as to his right of episcopal visitation in 1239 (Ann. Mon. i. 103, iii. 151). His episcopate was marked by much progress in the building of St. Paul's, and the choir was dedicated by him on 1 Oct. 1240.
He died at Stepney on 29 Sept. 1241, and was buried in St. Paul's between the north aisle and the choir. An engraving of his tomb as it existed before the great fire is given in Dugdale's ‘St. Paul's,’ p. 58, together with four lines of verse and a prose epitaph that were inscribed on it. The latter describes Roger as ‘a man of profound learning, of honourable character, and in all things praiseworthy; a lover and strenuous defender of the Christian religion.’ This epitaph is paraphrased by Matthew Paris (iii. 164), who further speaks of him as ‘free from all manner of pride.’ After his death Roger was honoured as a saint, and miracles were alleged to have been wrought at his tomb (ib. v. 13; Cont. Gervase, ii. 130, 202). In 1252 Hugh de Northwold [q. v.], bishop of Ely, in granting an indulgence of thirty days to all who visited his tomb, describes him as ‘beatus Rogerus episcopus et confessor.’ A similar indulgence was granted by John le Breton, bishop of Hereford, in 1269.
A treatise, ‘De contemptu mundi sive de bono paupertatis,’ has been ascribed to Bishop Roger without sufficient reason; it was edited under his name by Andreas Schott (Cologne, 1619), and re-edited in 1873 by Monsignor J. B. Malon, who showed the incorrectness of the ascription. A translation into French by l'Abbé Picherit appeared under Roger's name in 1865 (Backer, Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Comp. de Jésus). Pits (Appendix, p. 406) wrongly identifies the bishop with Roger Black or Nigellus, a Benedictine monk of Westminster, who was the author of some sermons beginning ‘Sapientiâ vincit malitiam Christus.’
[Matthew Paris, Annales Monastici, Continuation of Gervase of Canterbury (all in Rolls Ser.); Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 102–3; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 13–14; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii. 284, 338, 382; Dugdale's St. Paul's, ed. Ellis, pp. 8, 58; Documents illustrating the History of St. Paul's (Camden Soc.); Wharton's De Episcopis Londiniensibus, pp. 83–8.]
NIGHTINGALE, JOSEPH (1775–1824), miscellaneous writer, was born at Chowbent, in the chapelry of Atherton, parish of Leigh, Lancashire, on 26 Oct. 1775. He became a Wesleyan methodist in 1796, and acted occasionally as a local preacher, but never entered the methodist ministry, and ceased to be a member in 1804. For some time he was master of a school at Macclesfield, Cheshire, but came to London in 1805, at the suggestion of William Smyth (1765–1849) [q. v.], afterwards professor of modern history at Cambridge. By this time he was a unitarian. He ranked as a minister of that body, preaching his first sermon on 8 June 1806 at Parliament Street Chapel, Bishopsgate, but he never held any pastoral charge, and supported himself chiefly by his pen. After the publication of his ‘Portraiture of Methodism’ (1807) he was exposed to much criticism. An article in the ‘New Annual Register’ for 1807 characterised him as ‘a knave;’ he brought an action for libel against John Stockdale, the publisher, and recovered 200l. damages on 11 March 1809. In 1824 he was again received into membership by the methodist body. In private life ‘he was of a kind disposition, lively imagination, and possessed a cheerfulness that never deserted him.’ This description is confirmed by his portrait prefixed to his ‘Stenography.’ He died in London on 9 Aug. 1824, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. He married, on 17 Nov. 1799, Margaret Goostry, and had four children; his son, Joseph Sargent Nightingale, became an independent minister.
His works extend to about fifty volumes; those on topography have much merit. Among them are: 1. ‘Elegiac Thoughts on the Death of Rev. David Simpson,’ Manchester, 1797. 2. ‘The Election, a Satirical Drama,’ Stockport, 1804. 3. ‘A Portraiture of Methodism,’ 1807, 8vo. 4. ‘Nightingale versus Stockdale,’ &c. [1809], 8vo. 5. ‘A Guide to the Watering Places,’ 1811. 6. ‘A Letter to a Friend, containing a Comparative View of the Two Systems of Shorthand, respectively invented by Mr. Byrom and Dr. Mavor,’ 1811, 8vo. 7. ‘A Portraiture of the Roman Catholic Religion,’ 1812, 8vo. 8. ‘Accounts of the Counties of Stafford, Somerset, and Salop,’ 1813, 3 vols., forming a continuation of the ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ by E. W. Brayley (1773–1854) [q. v.] 9. ‘Surveys of the City of London and the City of Westminster,’ 1814–15, 4 vols. 10. ‘English Topography, consisting of Accounts of the several Counties of England and Wales,’ 1816, 4to. 11. ‘The Bazaar, its Origin, Nature, &c., considered as a Branch of Political Economy,’ 1816, 8vo. 12. ‘History and Antiquities of the Parochial Church of Saviour, Southwark,’ 1818, 4to. 13. ‘Memoirs of Caroline, Queen of England,’ 1820–
