| Notes |
- 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 which 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 a house with other Pilgrim families in St. Peter's Churchyard west-side, were Jan Thomas, orphan from England without means; Elsgen Rogiers, widow of Thonis Rogiers, an Englishwoman; and Lysbeth and Grietgen 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 who 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."
Governor Bradford's statement that the rest of Thomas Rogers' children came over and married and had children, seems clearly to indicate that more than one of his children came to New England after 1620. We know that his son John came to Plymouth about 1630. Although many other male Rogers immigrants have been claimed as sons of Thomas the Pilgrim, none of the claims has been proved and some have been disproved. Therefore it seems likely that at least one of the Rogers daughters who were living in Holland in 1622 came over. John and Joseph Rogers each named a daughter Elizabeth, perhaps thereby indicating that their sister Elizabeth lived in New England. Unfortunately extensive research has failed to uncover any further evidence.
John Rogers came to Plymouth about 1630, when the last of the Leiden contingent arrived and was in Plymouth Colony on 25 March 1633 when he was taxed 9 shillings. The proof of his identity lies in a grant made 6 April 1640 to "Joseph Rogers and John Rogers his brother...fifty acres apeece of upland....at the North River." Both then had growing families to carry forward the Rogers heritage, although only Joseph's descendants would carry forward the Rogers name beyond the fourth generation." - www.thomasrogerssociety.com:
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Abt 1571 - 1620 (~ 49 years)
