John Rogers, the Martyr
Much has been written on the ancestry of John Rogers, the Protestant martyr who was burnt at the stake in Smithfield on 4 February 1555. Sadly, little of what has been written is grounded in fact, and this page has been written to debunk many of the commonly quoted yet erroneous aspects of his ancestry.
Contents |
The erroneous pedigree
Many of these errors originate in the work of an early 20th century genealogist called John Cox Underwood who gives the following ancestry[1]:
- John Rogers "the Martyr"
- b 1507, Deritend, Warks. d 1555, Smithfield, London
- John Rogers of Deritend
- b 1485, Bradford on Avon, Wilts.
- m 1505–6, to Margaret Wyatt, dau of Sir Henry Wyatt of "Abington" [sic — he means Allington], Kent
- Thomas Rogers of Bradford on Avon, sergeant at law
- b 1435, Benham Valence, Berks
- m (i) 1479, to Cecilia Besill (dau of William Besill of Bradford on Avon, Wilts)
- m (ii) 1483, to Catherine Courtenay (dau of Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham, Devon)
- d 1489, Bradford on Avon, Wilts
- Thomas Rogers, gent.
- b 1408, Ashington, Somerset
- m (i) abt 1433, wife unknown
- m (ii) bef 1468, Margaret
- d 1471
- Sir John FitzRoger
- b 1386
- m 1406, to Agnes de Mercaunt (of Seamer [sic], Suffolk)
- d 1441, Bryanston, Dorset
- John FitzRoger, gent
- b 1335
- m 1385, to Elizabeth de Furneaux (b 1330, widow of Sir John Blount, dau of Sir Simon de Furneaux)
- Aaron or John FitzRoger
- b abt 1260, Italy
- [unnamed]
- [unnamed]
- Tancred, King of Sicily (1189–94)
- … and from there back through the Hauteville dynasty to Tancred de Hauteville, b c970.
Underwood's research is almost entirely unsourced, so it's hard to be sure where he got much of his information, but this hasn't prevented it from being copied widely.
The Martyr's father
Underwood says John the Martyr was born 1507 and dismisses various other estimates (1500–09) as "without analytic proof",[1] but in fact there seems to be no evidence favouring a specific year. Alumni Cantabrigienses says be took his BA in 1525–6,[2] which suggests to a birth around 1505, which is what his Wikipedia page says;[3] the ODNB opts for c1500, which is also plausible.[4]
J L Chester's biography of the Martyr says that he was the son of John Rogers of Deritend, Warwickshire.[5] Chester cites as evidence the heralds' visitations of Warwickshire in 1563 and 1619 [Harleian MS 1563], and of Middlesex in 1634 [Harl. MS 1551]. John of Deritend is also given as his father in Alum. Cantab., though it's unclear whether this is based on a contemporary university source.[2]
The family is not included in printed version of the 1619 visitation of Warwickshire (although another Rogers family living in Sherbourne, Warks and originating in Dorset is given).[6] The printed edition is based on Harl. MS 1167 containing only the 1619 visitation, and but MS 1563 (which Chester cited) additionally contains pedigrees from the 1563 visitation.[7] This suggests that pedigree was from the 1563 visitation (albeit with additions made 1619), and thus only eight year's after the execution at Smithfield and while John of Deritend likely remained in living memory.
Although the visitations do not explicitly identify anyone as the Smithfield Martyr, Chester presents a compelling case that it must be his family on the basis that Adryan Pratt (or de Weyden) was the Martyr's wife, and Daniel Rogers of Sunbury, Middlesex his son, both of whom appear on the visitations.[5] Even if these visitations are only evidence that the Martyr came from Deritend, it seem adequate to accept the connection, absent any evidence to the contrary.
The Sutton Valence link
The 1634 visitation of Middlesex shows John of Deritend as the son of "... Rogers of Sutton Vallens [sic] in Kent". It also gives the family's arms as Argent, a chevron between three stags statant Sable, a crescent Or for difference.[8] According to Chester, the Warwickshire visitation gives the same arms, but does not say where John of Deritend's father was from.[5]
Probably John of Deritend was born in the 1470s or 80s (Underwood says 1485,[1] about the latest feasible date), and the Sutton Valence connection is not recorded until the 1630s, 150 years later. Chester states that the earlier Warwickshire visitation pedigrees do not mention it.[5] However the coat of arms lends some credibility to the link, as very similar arms are assigned to the Rogers family of Sutton Valence in the 1574 visitation of Kent: Argent, a chevron between three stags courant Sable attired Or, a crescent on a crescent for difference.[9] The differences between the Deritend and Sutton Valence are minimal, and all could be are subtle enough that they could be mere artistic licence and of no consequence. The stags on the Deritend arms are statant (standing) while those at Sutton Valence are courant (running); the antlers at Sutton Valence are picked out in gold (attired Or); and the Sutton Valence family has two crescent cadency marks, normally signifying a second son of a second son, while the Deritend family just has a single crescent.
It is tempting to take this as confirmation that John of Deritend descended from the Sutton Valence Rogers family. Perhaps the Deritend branch was the senior one, and family who remained in Sutton Valence added a second crescent to their arms to distinguish themselves. The difficulty comes with working out how exactly the families relate. The 1574 Kent pedigree is for a Richard Rogers, the then suffragan Bishop of Dover, whose descent was given as follows:[9]
- John Rogers of Sutton Valence.
- John Rogers, married the sister of [William] Copynger, Lord Mayor of London (1512–13).
- Raulf Rogers, married Margery daughter of William Goldwell
- Richard Rogers, suffragan Bishop of Dover
Richard, the Bishop of Dover, graduated Batchelor of Divinity from Cambridge in 1562, and Alum. Cantab. says he was born c1533, son of Ralph of Sutton Valence.[2] (A BD is a higher degree, taken some time after an BA, and Richard had fled the country during Queen Mary's reign,[10] which explains his age.) According to the visitation, he was a third son, so his father was probably born in around 1500, making him roughly the same age as the Martyr, and his father John presumably the same age as John of Deritend. Contemporary evidence confirms that people of these names lived in Sutton Valence at the applicable times. Ralph's name appears in several court cases in the 1540s involving land in Sutton Valence,[11] and in 1492 a John Rogers of Sutton Valence, gentleman, received the nuncupative will of John Reignolde of Leeds, Kent,[12] though whether this is Ralph's father or grandfather is unclear.
Thomas of Bradford
(excepting the crescent for difference) they are the same arms attributed to the Rogers family of Bradford by the 1565 visitation of Wiltshire.[13] That visitation also agrees that Thomas of Bradford married twice, secondly to a daughter of one of the Courtenays of Powderham, by whom he had a son "of Kent".
Sources consulted
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Underwood, John Cox. Lineage of the Rogers Family, England — Embracing John Rogers the Martyr, p 9–24. New York, 1911.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Venn, John & Venn, J. A. Alumni Cantabrigienses, part 1, vol 3, p 478. Available digitally from the Internet Archive.
- ↑ Wikipedia contributors. "John Rogers (Bible editor and martyr)", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed 25 Apr 2015).
- ↑ David Daniell, "Rogers, John (c.1500–1555)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2004. Available online (subscription required).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Chester, Joseph Lemuel. "John Rogers: the compiler of the first authorised English Bible", pp 221-3. London, 1861. Available digitally from the Internet Archive.
- ↑ Fetherston, John. "The Visitation of the County of Warwick in the year 1619". London, 1877. Available digitally from the Internet Archive.
- ↑ British Museum. "A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum", vol 1, p 571 and vol 2, p 126. London, 1808. Available digitally from the Internet Archive (vol 1 & vol 2).
- ↑ Armytage, Sir George John. Middlesex Pedigrees: as collected by Richard Munday: Harleian MS 1551, p 84. London, 1914. Available digitally from the Internet Archive.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bannerman, W. Bruce. The Visitations of Kent taken in the years 1574 and 1592 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, part 2, p 25. London : The Harleian Society, 1924.
- ↑ Garrett, Christina Hallowell. The Marian Exiles: A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan Puritanism, p 273. Cambridge, 2010.
- ↑ The National Archives. Discovery Catalogue entries for "Goldsmyth v. Goldsmyth" (C 1/1094/57–58), "Dodd v. Goldwell" (STAC 3/2/53) and "Dodd v. Goldewell" (REQ 2/11/132).
- ↑ The National Archives. "Will of John Reynold " (PROB 11/9/90), Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
- ↑ Metcalfe, Walter C, editor. The Visitation of Wiltshire: 1565. Exeter: William Pollard & Co., 1897.
