John Rogers, Sr.

John Rogers, Sr. (d. 1791), was an Independent minister for 46 years at Collier’s Rents in Southwark.  He was born at Poole in Dorsetshire, and after being tutored by his pastor, a Rev. Madgwick, Rogers was admitted to the academy at Deptford, under the care of Abraham Taylor.  While at Deptford he preached for a congregation in Stepney on occasion, and then was ordained at Collier’s Rents on 30 January 1745.  Walter Wilson says that he ‘had a deep sense of the importance of personal religion’.  He was the author of A Sermon Occasioned by the death of the Revd. Mr. William Bentley, who departed this life, May 1.  In the fifty-second year of his age; Preached in Crispin-street, Spital-Fields, May 12, 1751 (London, 1751), as well as a tract written under the psueudonym “Antifop” called  Some serious and plain thoughts on the dress and taste of the present times.  Wherein several scriptures . . . are considered . . . The lampoon in print and picture-shop is hinted, and the ridicule of newspapers is quoted . . . (London, 1772).   Thomas Towle and Samuel Brewer preached at his funeral.  Like the other Independent ministers who sent their sons and daughters to J. C. Ryland’s academy, Rogers also had close ties with his Baptist counterparts.  For example, in 1766, due to the necessity of ‘pulling down their old Meeting House and raising a new one in its stead’, Rogers’ congregation was allowed to use the Meeting House at Maze Pond until their building was restored (see the Maze Pond Church Book , Vol. 1 [1744-83], Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, ff. 285-86).  For more on this, see Benjamin Wallin’s The Christian Salutation: A Farewel-Sermon delivered October 12, 1766: on the return of the Congregation under the care of the Rev. Mr. John Rogers, from their Occasional Association with the Church mMeeting near the Maze Pond, Southwark (London, 1766).  See also Walter Wilson, The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches and Meeting Houses, in London, Westminster, and Southwark; Including the Lives of Their Ministers, from the Rise of Nonconformity to the Present Time, 4 vols. (London: W. Wilson for W. Button, 1808–1814), vol. 4, 325-28.