xvii enough to the mind of the trained antiquary that here at last is a new It has long been a tradition in New England that the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich, Mass., son of the Rev. John Rogers of Dedham, co. Essex, England, was a descendant of John Rogers the Martyr. This tradition was disproved by the late Col. Joseph L. Chester, himself a descendant of the Ipswich minister. Indeed, it was through the researches that he then made into the history of this branch of the Rogers family that Colonel Chester was first led to turn his attention to the genealogical pursuits in which he subsequently became preeminent. His "Life of John Rogers the Martyr," published in London in 1861, was his earliest antiquarian work, and was the means of first bringing him to the notice of genealogists in this country and England. Although the result of these investigations was personally unsatisfactory to him, as he himself tells us, and his disappointment was great in finding that the Martyr could not have been the ancestor of the Ipswich minister, he never lost his interest in the subject, and continued almost to the day of his death to accumulate material in relation to the Rogers family in all its branches. Through the kindness of Augustus D. Rogers, Esq., of Salem, Mass., I am permitted to make the following extracts from three letters written to him by Colonel Chester. In the first, dated Jan. 13, 1877, after referring to his "Life of John Rogers the Martyr," he says: We shall never, I fear, I may say generally that I have since discovered nothing to vary the conclusions I then arrived at, but much to confirm them. carry the Rogers pedigree back beyond Richard Rogers of Wethersfield. Í have sought earnestly in vain to ascertain who his father was, but I quite accept Candler's statement that he was of the North of England. I have often been at Dedham, where the bust of John Rogers is still in the chancel of the church. I have spared no pains to ascertain his parentage, but in vain. My Rogers collections alone would make a small library. In the second, bearing date Feb. 17, 1877, he says: For eighteen years I have been collecting everything I could lay my hands on, from every possible source, concerning the Rogers families, all over England. All this material I have kept carefully worked up in pedigree form, and, with all my personal interest in the descent, I have never been able to get back a step beyond Richard Rogers of Wethersfield, nor even ascertain who was the father of John Rogers of Dedham. If any further progress is ever made it will be by accident. But my impression is that the earlier ancestors of the family were of a rank in life so humble that they never got into the public records. If I could think of anything more to do, you may be sure that My Rogers collections are enormous, and I know of I would do it. nothing that has escaped me. The third is dated March 9, 1878, and he there says: You must recollect that I take as deep an interest in the Rogers pedigree as you or anybody else can, as there is no doubt about my descent from Rev. John Rogers of Dedham, and if I had been able to add anything to what I I have been pursuing these have heretofore published, I should have done so. inquiries here for now nearly twenty years, and you may be sure I have left no stone unturned. It will be seen that these letters were written but a few years before the death of the writer. It is with no wish to detract from the fame of Colonel Chester — for that is now secure, and he is admitted by all to have been preeminent among the genealogists of our day, without a superior indeed either in this country or in England - that attention is called to the fact that in the history of the very family in which Colonel Chester had the greatest interest, for it was his mother's mother's family, to which he had devoted so much exhaustive labor with the tireless energy and perseverance for which he was so remarkable, discoveries have now been made by Mr. Waters which but a short time ago would have been pronounced impossible. Mr. Waters now shows us that the Rev. John Rogers of Dedham was the son of John Rogers, a Chelmsford shoemaker, and that this shoemaker and the Rev. Richard Rogers were probably brothers, the sons of another John Rogers, when John Rogers the Martyr was living elsewhere. Nor has this discovery been made by accident, as Colonel Chester prophesied, but by a laborious, systematic, and exhaustive search on a plan never before attempted. It is another proof that the baffled investigator hereafter need never despair of his case, that genealogical problems apparently impossible of solution are by no means to be abandoned as hopeless. It is a reminder also of the necessity of establishing a permanent fund, by means of which we can carry on these investigations on a grander scale than ever before, and with proportionately greater results. Of surpassing interest as were these discoveries of the parentage of John Harvard and John Rogers, they were followed by the equally remarkable establishment of the ancestry of Roger Williams and George Washington. All of these problems had long baffled the efforts of the most eminent antiquaries, and their solution by Mr. Waters forms a series of perhaps the most brilliant achievements in the whole history of genealogy. But the story of the final determination of the Washington ancestry-ending as it did the long search first begun by Sir Isaac Heard in 1791, in the lifetime of Washington, and since then continued by other genealogists without success, until at last brought to a close by Mr. Waters nearly a century afterward— is best told in Mr. Waters's own words, and to his account the reader is referred. It has been thought advisable to reprint here for the sake of convenience (pp. 523-539) the article on the "Wills of the American Ancestors of General George Washington," communicated by the late Joseph M. Toner, M.D., of Washington, D.C., to the REGISTER for July, 1891 (xlv., 199-215). But Mr. Waters has by no means limited himself to the work of preparing complete and finished pedigrees of noted families, nor has he confined his attention to determining the parentage of historic personages, however famous. His aim has been to make accessible in print everything which can serve to connect American families, distinguished or obscure, with the parent stock in England. Nowhere else can there be found in print genealogical data bearing on this connection which concern so large a number of the families of our early settlers. These pages contain wills relating not only to New England families, but to those of Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, and the West Indies. These researches, in short, have been conducted in no narrow spirit, and they should interest every one of English descent in every part of our country. The valuable table prepared by J. Challenor Covington Smith, Esq., late Superintendent of the Department for Literary Inquiry, Principal Registry of the Court of Probate, Somerset House, London, giving the numbers of the Calendars, the names and dates of the several registers as well as his paper explaining the method of identifying the Will Registers of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, which was contributed by him to the REGISTER for July, 1892 (xlvi., 299-303) - may be found reprinted here (pp. 569-573). The genealogical investigator cannot fail to appreciate its great usefulness. Page 845 has been divided. The probate of the will of William Dyre and the Editor's note at the top of that page are to be found in Vol. I. The will of Nicholas Pynchon which fills the rest of the page begins Vol. II. The index to these volumes of "Genealogical Gleanings" is the work of Miss Edna F. Calder. In the Index of Persons, the names of those whose wills were probated, or whose estates were administered upon, are printed in full-face type, the number of the page on which such will or administration is to be found being printed in italics. BOSTON, Jan. 1, 1901. JOHN T. HASSAM. GENEALOGICAL GLEANINGS IN ENGLAND. GREGORY COFFIN, of Stepney, co. Middlesex, mariner, shipped on board. the William & Jane of London, Mr. John Baker commander, on a voyage to New England and Bilboe, by will dated 15 February, 1660, proved 20 August, 1662, appointed John Earle of Shadwell, mariner, his attorney, and left all his estate to the said John Earle and his wife. Joane Earle, whom he appointed joint executors. Laud, fol. 105. JOHN COCKERELL, of Great Cogshall, co. Essex, clothier, made his will 14 July, 1662, proved 12 August, 1662. He bequeathed to his wife Mary all the lands and tenements in Bradwell, in the county aforesaid, which were her jointure; and also lands, &c., in Cressing, which he had lately purchased of one Mr. Jermyn and one Joseph Raven, during her natural life, and after her decease then to his son John Cockerell and his heirs forever. He devised to her also that part of the messuage which he had lately purchased of John Sparhauke, then in the tenure and occupation of Mistress Crane, for life, with remainder to son John, &c. The residue of his estate to son John at age of twenty-one years. He made bequests to two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, and to the child his wife was then going withall. He appointed said wife executrix, and directed her to redeem the mortgage which he had made to Mrs. Hester Sparhauk of the messuage he then lived in, and which was in the occupation of the said Mrs. Crane. Laud, 106. BENJAMIN KAINE furnished an account of his goods and chattels, 16 October, 1654. Among the items was a tenement in Shoe Lane, and property in the hands of Mr. Coddington, his attorney, in Bow Lane, and in keeping of other persons (among whom a Mr. Walter Gibbons, cutler in Holborn). Thomas Blumfield spoken of, and called a brother of Mr. Withers. By his will, of same date, he gave his whole estate to his daughter Anna Kaine, except some particular legacies, viz., to his father Mr. Rt Kaine of Boston in New England, to whom he left (inter alia) a Japan cane with a silver head, which was in the trunk at Mr. Blumfield's, to his dear mother, to his cousin Dr. Edmond Wilson, to his Colonel, Stephen Winthrop, to Cornet Wackfield, to Mr. Mastin, to Mr. Richard Pery and his wife, to Mr. William Gray, late of Burchin lane; the said Gray and Pery to be trustees for his estate in England; to his servants John Earle and Thomas Lamb. The will was signed in Glasgow, in presence of Nicholas Wackfield and Richard Pery. On the sixteenth of May, 1662, emanavit comissio Simoni Bradstreet prox. consanguineo in hoc regno anglia remanenti dicti defuncti, etc. Laud, 67. |