William Rogers

d. 1816

Died 1816

Children include George

William Rogers lived near Rogersville, in Hawkins County, East Tennessee. He is known from a single source: a letter his grandson and namesake, the preacher William Leroy Rogers, wrote in 1922.

He married Bettie Gonce, a daughter of Isaac Gonce, whose farm lay on the north side of Clinch Mountain. Their only child, George, was born in October 1815.

William served in the War of 1812. He came home having lost his health. He died in 1816, when his son was six months old.

His widow married James B. Matthews in 1818 and moved with her father's family to Jackson County, Alabama. George was his only descendant.

The letter names William's father as George Rogers, "whose home was five miles from Rogersville." Family tradition made that George a brother of Joseph Rogers, who founded Rogersville. The genealogist who published the letter rejected that tradition. A George Rogers did buy a hundred acres from Isaac Gonce on Richardson Creek, beside "said Rogers Spring," in November 1813. Whether he was William's father is not proven.

Children

George Rogers 1815-1892

Sources

the 1922 letter of Elder William Leroy Rogers to his grandson James Byron Rogers, published in Footprints (Fort Worth Genealogical Society), August 1988, and at tngenweb.org/hawkins. Hawkins County, Tennessee deed, Isaac Gonce to George Rogers, FamilySearch full-text image 3:1:3Q9M-CSHM-LSCY-Q.

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

Cite: Heirology, "William Rogers (d. 1816)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/william-rogers-1816-9d9327.