George Rogers

See: http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/bachilerscarletletter.htm

GEORGE ROGERS, one of [John] Winter's fishermen at Richmond Island in 1638 [https://mainernews.com/radical-mainers-2/], settled at the Long Reach, Kittery, by 1641. Gr.j. 1650, 1651... Convicted of adultery with Mrs. Stephen Batchelder in 1651, it was ordered that his property be held for the benefit of his children (their mother apparently dead), and that they be put out as apprentices. One (a girl) went to Daniel Paul. Another girl was to be apprenticed by Mr. Rishworth at Hampton. One boy was to go to Anthony Emery and the youngest to Mrs. Shapleigh. Last mentioned in 1654. Of the four children: BENJAMIN, was to have his father's cow at Goodman Emery's. Thomas Crawley tried to have one Benjamin Rogers indicted for suspicion of incontinency, c.1666. RICHARD, had the greater part of his father's land. GRACE, wife of Richard Miller who lived on southern part of George Rogers' land by 1667; she m. 2nd, Christopher Banfield who sold 10 acres to Richard Rogers in 1697. [Source: "Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire", by Noyes, Libby, and Davis, p. 593]

The affair between George Rogers and Mary (Beedle) Batchelder, the estranged wife of Rev. Stephen Batchelder, produced an out-of-wedlock child, born around the time that they were both convicted for the crime of adultery. As punishment, Mary Batchelder was required to wear the letter "A" sewn into her clothing at all times. Her real-life story is believed to have been the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale "The Scarlet Letter", written nearly 200 years later.

Following his banishment from Kittery, George Rogers is not seen again. His death date is unknown.

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George Rogers is said to have come to New England on the ship "Speedwell", 26 April 1635, and was a fisherman by occupation.

Stephen Bachelder married (3) widow Mary BEEDLE. She was a much younger woman and he was age 87. After a while, Mary’s eyes began to wander to the younger, more romantic men in Hampton, New Hampshire. Her new love, George Rodgers, fathered a child, obviously not that of the very elderly Reverend BACHELDER. The young man was sentenced to forty strokes and was driven out of town. Mary was given forty one strokes and was ordered to wear the letter “A” of a good size, and contrasting color upon her clothes. One version of the tale is that Reverend BACHELDER refused to give Mary a divorce so that she could marry George, and that he returned to England, leaving her and her baby as burdens upon the town of Hampton, unable to marry a man willing to care for them.(S2). - http://www.themorrisclan.com/GENEALOGY/BACHILER%20Stephen%20F15160....

On 15 October 1650 at a court at York "George Rodgers & Mrs. Batcheller [were] presented upon vehement suspicion of incontinency for living in one house together & lying in one room" [ MPCR 1:146]. At a court at Piscataqua [i.e., Kittery] on 16 October 1651 the grand jury presented "George Rogers for, & Mary Batcheller the wife of Mr. Steven Bacheller minister for adultery"; George Rogers was to have forty strokes, and Mary Bachiler "for her adultery shall receive 40 strokes save one at the first town meeting held at Kittery six weeks after the delivery & be branded with the letter A" [ MPCR 1:164]. This child born late in 1651 or early in 1652 was apparently the Mary Bachiler who later married William Richards, and even though the Dover Court on 26 March 1673 awarded him administration of the estate of Stephen Bachiler [ NHPP 40:287], she would not have been his daughter. (See MA Arch 9:28 and NHGR 8:14 for more on Bachiler's fourth wife.)

Links

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hwbradley/aqwg486.htm#17593