Ancestors

Samuel Rogers

Born at Stratford on 12 December 1640, eldest son of James Rogers of New London, and married on 17 November 1662 to Mary, daughter of Thomas Stanton. The couple lived first at New London and then moved out to the far edge of the town, into the country of the Mohegans, where they were the first English family inside what is now the town of Montville.

They were there because Uncas asked them to be. The sachem had been on close terms with Samuel Rogers for years and pressed him to settle nearby, and as an inducement gave him a good tract of land on the brook the Mohegans called Cochiknack, now Oxoboxo. He added a promise: if raiders ever came down out of the Narragansett country, he would bring his warriors himself.

Rogers built a house of hewn logs there in the middle of the woods, walled it, and mounted a gun in front of it. Uncas would ride the four miles out from the river settlement to sit with him, smoke, and take a glass. Six children were born in that house, the first English children born within the bounds of the town.

He went on to become one of the largest landholders in the reservation, holding grants not only from Uncas but from his sons Owaneco and Josiah, given, the county history says, in recompense for services rendered to them and their tribe. Land came to his children the same way, to his son Jonathan and to his daughter Sarah, who settled beside him. He died on 1 December 1713.

If Samuel Rogers is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Samuel Rogers (1640-1713)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/samuel-rogers-1640-1713-70f806.