ROGERS, EZEKIEL (1584?–1661), colonist, born about 1584, was son of Richard Rogers (1550?–1618) [q. v.], incumbent of Wethersfield in Essex, and younger brother of Daniel Rogers (1573–1652) [q. v.]. He graduated M. A. from Christ's College, Cambridge, 1604, and became chaplain in the family of Sir Francis Barrington in Essex. He was preferred by his patron to the living of Rowley in Yorkshire. There he became conspicuous as a preacher, attached himself to the puritan party, and was suspended. In 1638 became with a party of twenty families to New England. On 23 May 1639 he was admitted a freeman of Massachusetts. In the same year he and his companions established themselves as a township, to which they gave the name of their old home, Rowley. Theophilus Eaton [q. v.] and John Davenport [q. v.], then engaged in establishing their colony at New Haven, tried to enlist Rogers, but without success. In 1639 Rogers was appointed pastor of the new township. In 1643 he preached the election sermon, and in 1647 a sermon before the general synod at Cambridge. He died on 23 Jan. 1661, leaving no issue. He was three times married: first, to Sarah, widow of John Everard; secondly, to a daughter of the well-known New England divine, John Wilson; thirdly, to Mary, widow of Thomas Barker.
Rogers published in 1642 a short treatise, entitled 'The Chief Grounds of the Christian Religion set down by way of catechising, gathered long since for the use of an honourable Family,' London, 1642. Several of his letters to John Winthrop, the governor of Massachusetts, are published in the 'Massachusetts Historical Collection' (4th ser. vii.)
[Cotton Mather's Magnalia; Winthrop's Hist. of New England (Savage's edit.); Savage's Genealogical Register of New England; Chester's John Rogers, p. 249.]
ROGERS, FRANCIS JAMES NEWMAN (1791–1851), legal writer, son of the Rev. James Rogers of Rainscombe, Wiltshire, by Catherine, youngest daughter of Francis Newman of Cadbury House, Somerset, was born in 1791. He was educated at Eton, matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, on 5 May 1808, graduated B.A. in 1812, and M.A. in 1815. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 21 May 1816, and to the Inner Temple ad eundem in 1820. He went the western circuit and practised in the common-law courts and as a special pleader. On 24 Feb. 1837 he was created a king's counsel, and soon after was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple. From 1835 to his death he was recorder of Exeter, and from 1842 deputy judge-advocate-general. He died at 1 Upper Wimpole Street, London, on 19 July 1851, and was buried in the Temple Church on 25 July, having married, on 29 June 1822, Julia Eleanora, third daughter of William Walter Yea of Pyrland Hall, Somerset, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, Walter Lacy Rogers (d. 1885) and Francis Newman Rogers (d. 1859), were barristers.
He was the author of: 1. ‘The Law and Practice of Elections, with Analytical Tables and a Copious Index,’ 1820 (dedicated to Sir W. D. Best, knt.); 3rd edit. as altered by the Reform Acts, 1835; 9th edit. with F. S. P. Wolferstan, 1859; 10th edit. by F. S. P. Wolferstan, 1865; 11th edit. (with the New Reform Act), 1868; 15th edit. by M. Powell, J. C. Carter, and J. S. Sandars, 1890; 16th edit. by S. H. Day, 1892. 2. ‘Parliamentary Reform Act, 2 Will. IV, c. 45, with Notes containing a Complete Digest of Election Law as altered by that Statute,’ 1832. 3. ‘A Practical Arrangement of Ecclesiastical Law,’ 1840; 2nd edit. 1849. 4. ‘The Marriage Question: an Attempt to discover the True Scripture Argument in the Question of Marriage with a Wife's Sister,’ 1855.
[Gent. Mag. 1851, ii. 322–3; Illustr. London News, 1851, xix. 138; Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple, 1883, p. 102.]
ROGERS, FREDERIC, Lord Blachford (1811–1889), born at Marylebone on 31 Jan. 1811, was the eldest son of Sir Frederick Leman Rogers, bart. (d. 13 Dec. 1851), who married, on 12 April 1810, Sophia, second daughter and coheiress of the late Lieutenant-colonel Charles Russell Deare of the Bengal artillery. She died on 16 Feb. 1871. He went to Eton in September 1822, and left in the sixth form in July 1828. He was contemporary there with Mr. Gladstone, Bishops Hamilton of Salisbury and Selwyn of Lichfield, and with Arthur Henry Hallam. While at school he contributed, under the pseudonym of ‘Philip Montagu,’ to the ‘Eton Miscellany,’ which Gladstone and Selwyn edited. He matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, on 2 July 1828. It is said that his choice of a college was due to the fact that
