From The Mayflower Families, Volume 2:
Little is known about Pilgrim Thomas Rogers, and
nothing at all is known about his ancestry.
His alleged descent from John Rogers the Martyr was disproved in the
19th century by Joseph Chester and Henry F. Waters. Banks notes that taxpayers named Thomas Rogers, Christopher
martin and John Hooke appear in the London parish of St. Bartholomew the Great
early in 1620, but there is no proof that these were the "Mayflower"
passengers. Our earliest known encounter with Pilgrim Thomas Rogers was on 25
June 1618 when he became a citizen of Leiden, Holland, vouched for by William
Jepson, formerly of Worksop, Notts, and by Robert Wilson, formerly of Sandwich,
Co. Kent, England. Banks therefore
speculates that Rogers might have been from one of those towns. On 1 April 1620 Thomas sold his Leiden house
on the Barbarasteeg for 300 guilders, in preparation for the journey to New
England. Governor Bradford says in his history of the Plymouth settlement that
on board the "Mayflower" were "Thomas Rogers and Joseph his son;
his other children came afterwards...Thomas Rogers died in the first sickness
but his son Joseph is still living [1650] and is married and hath six
children. The rest of Thomas Rogers'
[children] came over and are married and have many children." Therefore we know that Thomas and his son
Joseph arrived at Cape Cod aboard the ship "Mayflower", and on 11
November 1620 according to their calendar, or 21 November on ours, Thomas was
one of forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact. Thomas did not live through the rigorous winter that carried off
half the 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 house with other Pilgrim families in St. Peter's
Churchyard west-side, were Jan Thomasz, orphan from England without means;
Elsgen Rogiers, widow of Thonis Rogiers, and Englishwoman; and Lysbeth and
Gretgen her children, poor people.
Translated this could read, John, son of Thomas; Elizabeth Rogers, widow
of Thomas; and Elizabeth and Margaret, her children. At that period the word orphan meant that either or both parents
were dead. In the 1623 Plymouth Colony land division, Joseph Rogers was
allotted two acres--one for himself and one on behalf of his late father. He may have been living in the household of
Governor Bradford with whom he was grouped on 22 May 1627, in the division of
cattle. Joseph and twelve other
inhabitants of Plymouth received "an Heyfer of the last year which was of
the Great white-back cow that was brought over in the "Ann", and two
shee goats." Elsgen was apparently living in Leiden, Holland, in 1622 in a
house with other Pilgrim families and her children John, Elizabeth (Lysbeth) and Margaret (Gretgen). No further record of any of these, except
John, has yet been found, except Governor Bradford’s statement that the rest of
Thomas' children came over and married and had children. There are no probate records for Thomas or
Elsgen.
Here
is a good site on all of the Mayflower passengers.
Here is a link to the Thomas Rogers Society web site.
Here
is a link to the Pilgrim Hall web site in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
