The Rogerenes

• Traclng the sect no one has heard of
• A Geni research blog

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Rogerenes believed in equality of women, abolition of slavery, peaceful co-existance, temperance, faith healing, pacifism; they did not believe in infant baptism and long formal prayers.

John Rogers and the Rogerenes

29 September 2015 eh

From Planters, Loyalists, or Rogerene Runaways?

Rowland’s Grandfather Joseph and Great Uncle John Rogers were the second and third sons respectively of James Rogers (1615-1687) who had come to New London in 1660 at the request of the colony’s Governor, John Winthrop Jr., to operate a flour mill. The family prospered in the community, with James becoming its wealthiest inhabitant by 1664. But James increasingly came to disagreement with the local Congregational Church. Inspired by their father’s views on religious freedom, four of Rogers’ sons became dissenters; Joseph, John, James and Jonathan (the eldest Samuel was the exception). 

James Jr. (1652-1714) was supposed the first to formally dissent, embracing Sabbatarian principles in 1674 after becoming familiar by way of trade with the Seventh-Day Baptists of Rhode Island. That same year brother John founded the controversial sect, The Rogerenes.

John Rogers was influenced by both the Seventh Day Baptists and the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. Some of his views were similar to those of the Quakers, but his teachings are more similar to the former group and he was never in any way affiliated with the Quakers. None-the-less, he and his group were often referred to as Quakers, so much so that after a large number of his followers settled in the area of what is now Ledyard, Connecticut, it became widely known as Quakertown.

The Rogerenes initially held to a Seventh Day Sabbath, but eventually began to regard each day as holy. They were ridiculed for their peculiar language, dress and manners.  Like many religious sects, they employed no physicians or medicines. But it was their distain for the Christian Sabbath that most disturbed their neighbours.

Anna Williams, in her introduction to “The Rogerenes: Some hitherto unpublished annals belonging to the colonial history of Connecticut” says the sect was regarded “as fanatics whose idiosyncrasies bordered upon lunacy”.  Due to aggressive behaviour such as disrupting services in the Congregational Church they endured decades of persecution including fines, public floggings, confiscation of some of their property and jail terms. John Rogers himself was imprisoned a number of times, spending a total of 15 years in jail.

calumny

29 September 2015 eh

marriage problems

29 Sept 2015 eh

From Planters, Loyalists, or Rogerene Runaways?

John Rogers married Elizabeth Griswold in 1670. Four and a half years later, in May of 1675 and after having two children with him, Elizabeth applied to the court for a divorce.  It was less than a year after he had founded the Rogerenes. As grounds in her petition she cited firstly his religious heterodoxy (and secondly certain alleged immoralities).  The court delayed almost a year and a half, but granted her petition. 

Fully 25 years later, John took Mary Ransford as his second wife.  John and Mary’s wedding was somewhat Quaker-like, comprising of interrupting a county court while it was in session, requesting the assembly take notice, publicly declaring their intentions and leaving it at that, with no proper or legal marriage rites. This relationship was reportedly an unhappy one, with violent quarrels between Mary and John’s youngest son requiring the intervention of legal authorities on several occasions. Eventually the court declared their marriage illegal, sentencing Mary to pay a fine and prohibiting her from returning to her reputed husband.  Incidentally, Mary Ransford was reportedly a servant whom Rogers had bought prior to their marriage – curious behaviour from one who was by then an anti-slavery advocate.

Third time round, to Sarah Cole in 1714, Rogers married in the more accepted manner. 

periwigs

29 September 2015 eh

smallpox

29 Sepember 2015 eh

From Page 1278 of Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America: A Series of Historical ..., Volume 2
 By Albert N. Rogers, Seventh Day Baptist General Conference

Apparently John Rogers considered himself a kind of faith healer, and that he had an immunity to smallpox. So in October 1721, when on business in Boston, he went among the smallpox victims in that current epidemic, to offer what comfort he could.

He died of the smallpox at his home on Oct 17, and soon after, his son John's wife and their child, John Rogers lll, also died of the disease.

wives

29 September 2015 eh

resources

• Lake Rogerine and the Rogerine Sect at Mountain Pond, New Jersey
• The Rogerenes: Some Hitherto Unpublished Annals Belonging to the Colonial History of Connecticut. John Rogers Bolles, Anna Bolles Williams. Stanhope Press, F. H. Gilson Company, 1904 - Connecticut - 396 pages
• A religious movement you never heard of the Hartford Courant 2002
•   Wikipedia - Rogerenes
• Miner Descent
• IGI
• DNA shows Adam Rogers heritage
• John Rogers, Sr Find A Grave Memorial# 52287714
•  Radune, Richard A. 2005. Pequot Plantation: the story of an early colonial settlement. Branford, Conn: Research in Time Publications. : pages 236-237
• History of New London, Connecticut: From the First Survey of the Coast in ... By Francis Caulkins.  Page 202
• They Came to Milton Rootsweb database
  • James Rogers of New London, Ct. and his Descendants by James Swift Rogers.  Self Published, 1902 page 42
• For Adam's Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England.  Allegra di Bonaventura.  W. W. Norton & Company, Apr 22, 2013 - History - 464 pages.  "Fornicators among you." page 105-108
• Love of Freedom: Black Women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England.   By Catherine Adams, Elizabeth H. Pleck. "Love of Freedom" page 132
• The Rogerenes: Some Hitherto Unpublished Annals Belonging to the Colonial ... By John Rogers Bolles, Anna Bolles Williams.  Page 68
• Ancestry.com tree owned by "Tangled Roots"
• Cybergata
  • The Griswald Family: England-America, pg. 127
  • The Rogerenes of New London County, Connecticut
  • History of the Rogerenes from Online Quakertown