Robert Rogers, 1727 – 1795
In New England, one of the most interesting roles to play in
battles re-enactments is to be a member of Rogers Rangers. This is a maverick group, and the actors
don’t wear colonial uniforms, but buckskins and moccasins like Daniel Boone. The Rangers became famous fighting in the
French and Indian war, chasing the enemy up and down the Connecticut and
Merrimack River valleys, which were the major highways of the time.
Robert Rogers was raised in Londonderry, when it was a
frontier to the wilderness. Beyond
Londonderry was disputed territory belonging to Indian tribes and the
French. There were no formal schools in
Londonderry at the time, and we can imagine when he learned to read and write,
it was at home. He learned to hunt with
his Scots Irish neighbors, and to be comfortable in the wilderness. In
1739 his family removed from Londonderry to near present day Concord, New
Hampshire. His father called his land
Munterloney, after a place in Derry, Ireland.
It was later called Dunbarton, New Hampshire.
Rogers became a scout for Captain Ladd in 1746, and when he
was a teenage boy. In 1753 he was
mustered into Captain John Goffe’s company.
At the expedition against Crown Point Robert Rogers was named Captain
and the Second Lieutenant was John Stark.
Rogers kept journals at this time, which are an interesting view of the
war from the frontier. His troop was
now known as “Rogers Rangers” and in 1757 they reconnoitered Lake George by
snowshoes, and attacked a wagon train supplying the French. This
was known as the “Battle of the Snowshoes.”
He was wounded at this battle, but highly commended by General
Abercrombie.
Rogers later took his Rangers to the siege of Louisburg,
missing the siege of Fort William Henry whilst he was in Nova Scotia. He returned to Lake George, New York, in 1758
where he lost 114 out of about 200 men.
After many other skirmishes along the New York border, he was at the
siege of Detroit in 1763. He was to be
tried for high treason and court-martialed in 1768 due to his mismanagement of
Fort Michilimackinac. However, he
sailed for England to escape the trial.
He was feted by the nobility in England, probably because of the wild
tales he could tell of life in the wilderness fighting the Indians.
By now he was known as Major Rogers, and earned a large
estate in Concord, New Hampshire. He
married the daughter of a Portsmouth minister.
The marriage didn't last, and his wife petitioned for a divorce in 1778,
on the grounds of desertion. She lived
with her second husband on the estate in Concord.
He appeared again in America in July 1775 on behalf of the
British Army. The people of the
colonies regarded him as a spy, and he was arrested in Pennsylvania. He appeared in Hanover, New Hampshire where
he paid a visit to President Wheelock of Dartmouth College. He proposed a deal to Wheelock to obtain a
grant of land for Dartmouth from the Crown in exchange for aiding him, yet
Rogers disappeared the next morning. He
was finally arrested again in New York, and he fought his last battle at Mamaroneck
and was defeated by the colonists. He
returned to England and died there in 1795.
Rogers had a romanticized life, portrayed by writers and
actors as an adventurer, yet his life ended in disgrace according to the
Americans. The British probably have a
different point of view!
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For more information:
An American
edition of Roger’s Journals was first edited by Dr. Franklin Benjamin Hough and
published in 1883 and a new edition The Annotated and Illustrated Journals of
Major Robert Rogers was edited by Timothy J. Todish, Purple Mountain Press,
2002
Rising Above
Circumstances: The Rogers Family in Colonial America by Robert J. Rogers,
Sheltus & Picard, 1998
Parker’s History of Londonderry, page 180 and 238
The Bay State Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 4, pages 211- (January 1885), "Robert Rogers, The Ranger",
by Joseph B. Walker
War on the
Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First
Frontier by John F. Ross, Bantam Publishing, 2009
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Rogers Family
Tree:
Gen. 1. James Rogers,
born 30 June 1706 in Ireland, died in 1753 in Bow, New Hampshire, buried in the
Forest Hill Cemetery, Derry, New Hampshire; married December 1725 in Ireland to Mary McFatridge,
born about August 1705 in Ireland, died before 1772 in Dunbarton, New
Hampshire. Ten children.
Gen. 2. Robert Rogers, born 7 November 1731 in Methuen,
Massachusetts (a staging point for Ulster Scots headed to New Hampshire), died
on 18 May 1795 at Borough, England; married about 1760 to Elizabeth Browne, daughter of Reverend Arthur
Browne of Portsmouth, divorced in 1778. One child.
Gen. 3. Arthur Rogers,
Esquire, born 12 February 1769 in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, died 1841 in Concord, New Hampshire. He was a lawyer. He married about 1795 in Concord to Margaret
Furness, daughter of Robert Furness.
She was born 2 July 1770 in Portsmouth and died in 1848. They had nine children.
For a related story see "Scots Irish at Concord, NH" by my guest blogger, Tom Tufts
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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
