John Rogers (divine)
Encyclopedia
John Rogers divine was born at Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

 on 17 July 1778. He was the eldest son of John Rogers
John Rogers (MP)
John Rogers was a British politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Helston from 1784 to 1786.-References:...

, the M.P. for Penryn
Penryn (UK Parliament constituency)
Penryn was a parliamentary borough in Cornwall, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England from 1553 until 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and finally to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to until 1832...

 and Helston
Helston (UK Parliament constituency)
Helston, sometimes known as Helleston, was a parliamentary borough centred on the small town of Helston in Cornwall.Using the bloc vote system of election, it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then to House of Commons of Great Britain until 1800, and...

 and Margaret, daughter of Francis Basset.

Rogers was educated at Helston
Helston
Helston is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately 12 miles east of Penzance and nine miles southwest of Falmouth. Helston is the most southerly town in the UK and is around further south than...

 grammar school, at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

, and at Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...

. He matriculated on 8 April 1797, graduated B.A. as a passman in 1801, and M.A. in 1810. Having been ordained to the curacy of St Blazey
St Blazey
St Blazey is a small town in Cornwall, United Kingdom.St Blaise is the civil parish in which St Blazey is situated; the name St Blaise is also used by the town council.St Blazey is situated east of St Austell...

, he became rector of Mawnan
Mawnan
Mawnan is a civil parish in south Cornwall, United Kingdom . It is situated in the former administrative district of Kerrier and is bounded to the south by the Helford River, to the east by the sea, and to the west by Constantine parish...

, the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...

 of which belonged to his family, in 1807. In 1820 he was appointed Canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 Residentiary of Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

.

In February 1832 on the death of his father, he succeeded to the Penrose and Helston
Helston
Helston is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately 12 miles east of Penzance and nine miles southwest of Falmouth. Helston is the most southerly town in the UK and is around further south than...

 estates of about ten thousand acres (40 km²), comprising the manors of Penrose, Helston, Carminow, Winnianton, and various other estates in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, including several mines. The Penrose lands had been acquired in 1770 by his grandfather, Hugh Rogers, and the Helston in 1798 by his father. Rogers resigned his rectory in 1838. He died at Penrose on 12 June 1856, and was buried at Sithney
Sithney
Sithney is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is named for Saint Sithney, the patron saint of the parish church....

, where there is a monument to him.

Marriage and children

Rogers married, first, in 1814, Mary, only daughter of John Jope, rector of St Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...

 and vicar of St Cleer
St Cleer
St Cleer is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated on the southeast flank of Bodmin Moor approximately two miles north of Liskeard....

; and, secondly, in 1843, Grace, eldest daughter of G. S. Fursdon of Fursdon, Devonshire; she survived him, and died in 1862. By his first wife Rogers had issue five sons and a daughter. His eldest son, John Jope Rogers (1816–1880), inherited the Penrose Estate and was elected M.P. for Helston from 1859 to 1865. His second son, William, succeeded him as Rector of Mawnan. His third son, Reginald, inherited the Carwinion Estate and developed a fine garden there (now open to the public).

Landlord and scientist

Rogers was a popular and energetic landlord, and a good botanist and mineralogist. As lord of the Tresavean mine, he took an active part in forwarding the adoption of the first man engine
Man engine
A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to assist the miners’ journeys to and from the working levels...

 in England (designed by Michael Loam
Michael Loam
Michael Loam was a Cornish engineer who introduced the first man engine into the UK....

), the introduction of which in the deep mines, in place of the old perpendicular ladders, proved an important reform - reducing the time for miners to reach the working levels from an hour to just twenty-five minutes, and enabling older, more experienced miners to reach the lowest levels. The installation cost was £2500, and it saved £125 per month in time and labour, as well as improving the safety of the mine. He contributed several papers to the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall
Royal Geological Society of Cornwall
The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society based in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall, and is the second oldest geological society in the world....

.

Hebrew and Syriac scholar

He was, however, chiefly distinguished as a Hebrew and Syriac scholar. In 1812, when Frey prepared the edition of the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

 published by the newly formed Society for Promoting the Conversion of the Jews, the general supervision of the work was entrusted to Rogers.

Published works

His own works, in addition to sermons and occasional papers, were:
  • What is the Use of the Prayer Book? London, 1819.
  • Scripture Proofs of the Catechism, London, 1832.
  • Remarks on Bishop Lowth's Principles in correcting the Text of the Hebrew Bible, Oxford, 1832.
  • The Book of Psalms in Hebrew, with Selections from various Readings and from the ancient Versions, Oxford and London, 1833–4.
  • On the Origin and Regulations of Queen Anne's Bounty
    Queen Anne's Bounty
    Queen Anne's Bounty was a fund established in 1704 to augment the incomes of the poorer clergy of the Church of England. The bounty was funded by the tax on the incomes of all Church of England clergy, which was paid to the Pope until the Reformation, and thereafter to the Crown.In 1890, the total...

    ,
    London, 1836.
  • Reasons why a new Edition of the Peschito
    Peshitta
    The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition.The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from the Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD...

     Version should be published,
    Oxford and London, 1849.


A few days before his death he completed his last article on ‘Variæ Lectiones of the Hebrew Bible’ for the Journal of Sacred Literature.

External links


  • Revised DNB article in ODNB: E. C. Marchant, ‘Rogers, John (1778–1856)’, rev. Robert Brown, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23988, accessed 15 Dec 2007, seems little different from the original article.
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