Rogers, Thomas (Mayflower Pilgrim)

BIOGRAPHY: Our earliest known encounter with Pilgrim Thomas Rogers was on25 June 1618 when he became a citizen of Leiden, Holland, vouched for byWilliam Jepson, formerly of Worksop, Notts., and by Roger Wilson,formerly of Sandwich, Kent Co. Engalnd. On 1 April 1620 Thomas sold hisLeiden house on the Barbarasteeg for 300 guilders, in preparation for thejourney to New England. Governor Bradford says in his history of thePlymouth settlement that on board the Mayflower were "Thomas Rogers andJoseph his son; his other children came afterwards......Thomas Rogersdied in the first sickness but his son Joseph is still living (1650) andis married and hath six children. The rest of Thomas Rogers'' [children]came over and are married and have many children." Therefore we know thatThomas and his son Joseph arrived at Cape Cod aboard the ship Mayflowerand on 11 November 1620 according to their calendar, or 21 November onours, Thomas was one of forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact.Thomas did not live through the rigorous winter which carried off halfthe group but young Joseph, like so many of the children, did survive.Recent discoveries show that Thomas had a family living in Leiden,Holland, when the 1622 Poll Tax was taken. In the Over "t Hoff Quarter,in a house with other Pilgrim families in St. Peter''s Churchyardwest-side, were Jan Thomas, orphan from England without means; ElsgenRogiers, widow of Thonis Rogiers, an Englishwoman; and Lysbeth andGrietgen her children, poor people. Translated this could read John, sonof Thomas; Elizabeth Rogers, widow of Thomas; and Elizabeth and Margaret,her children. At that period the word orphan meant that either or bothparents were dead. In the 1623 Plymouth Colony land division, JosephRogers was allotted two acres-one for himself and one on behalf of hislate father. He may have been living in the household of GovernorBradford with who he was grouped on 22 May 1627, in the division ofcattle. Joseph and twelve other inhabitants of Plymouth received "anheyfer of the last year which was of the Great white-back cow that wasbrought over in the Ann and two shee goats." Governor Bradford''sstatement that the rest of Thomas Rogers'' children came over and marriedand had children, seems clearly to indicate that more than one of hischildren came to New England after 1620. We know that his son John cameto Plymouth about 1630. Although many other male Rogers immigrants havebeen claimed as sons of Thomas the Pilgrim, none of the claims has beenproved and some have been disproved. Therefore it seems likely that atleast one of the Rogers daughters who were living in Holland in 1622 cameover. John and Joseph Rogers each named a daughter Elizabeth, perhapsthereby indicating that their sister Elizabeth lived in New England.Unfortunately extensive research has failed to uncover any furtherevidence. John Rogers came to Plymouth about 1630, when the last of theLeiden contingent arrived and was in Plymouth Colony on 25 March 1633when he was taxed 9 shillings. The proof of his identity lies in a grantmade 6 April 1640 to "Joseph Rogers and John Rogers his brother...fiftyacres apeece of upland....at the North River." Both then had growingfamilies to carry forward the Rogers heritage, although only Joseph''sdescendants would carry forward the Rogers name beyond the fourthgeneration."
He died in Plymouth Colony in the winter of 1620/21 "in the firstsickness."