Person:John Rogers (7)

From The Mayflower Descendant, Volume 19:

At various times John Rogers... was a resident of Duxbury, Boston, Taunton and Swansea, Mass., also of the towns of Briston, and Barrington, both then in Massachusetts, but now in Rhode Island.

His first wife, who was the mother of his children, was Elizabeth Pabodie... of Duxbury, who died in 1677, 1678, or 1679.

His second wife was Hannah (Hobart) Browne, widow of John Browne of Salem, Mass. and daughter of Rev. Peter Hobart of Hingham, Mass. She died in 1691...

The third wife of John Rogers has heretofore been known only as Marah, the widow of Joseph Bruing, a bookseller of Boston, Mass., who died about 1691; but the Editor is now able to announce that he has discovered her maiden name. She was Marah Cobham, daughter of Josiah Cobham, of Salisbury, Mass.

He was son of John and Ann (Churchman) Rogers, who was born about 1640, and grandson of Thomas of the Mayflower, who is also in this database.

"Family rows" may be very unpleasant to the participants at the time, but we cannot but be grateful that sometimes such disagreements are carried into court. From deeds on record, and the proceedings in the distribution of the estate of John Rogers and his several wives, we know that his son John died unmarried, the names of his 4 daughters and their husbands, and the relationship of various groups of grandchildren. Marah (Browning) Rogers seems to "have come under the influence" of John Pierce, the husband of one of her nieces. When John Rogers died, his grandsons-administrators charged his widow Marah, John Pierce, and Peleg Richmond (another of his grandsons who had married John Pierce's daughter) with having "concealed, Imbezelled and conveyed away" assets of his estate, including a "bead and Garlix" (bed and its garniture?). Within a few weeks after the death of her husband, Marah assigned to this same John Pierce the 800 pounds mentioned in her antenuptial agreement. Notwithstanding her covenant not to claim anything from the estate of John Rogers, Marah was evidently so insistent in her demands that the administrators were forced to pay her 500 pounds on February 17, 1732/3, to secure her quit claim. When Marah died, and 2 of her grand-nephews were appointed administrators of February 19, 1739, they immediately charged John Pierce and Peleg Richmond with "embezelment" of her estate. Many of the documents, printed in 20 M.D., make interesting and amusing reading.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620. (New England - United States: General Society of Mayflower Descendants., Various)
   19:14-15.
2.   Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Descendant: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy, History and Biography
   8:232.

   marriage

3.   Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Descendant: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy, History and Biography
   19:192.

   3rd wife

4. ↑ 1987 Mayflower Families in Progress:Bradford.
5. ↑ "in his 92nd year, having been blind nearly 10 years"