The Rogers Family: Roots and Branches

The Rogers Family: Roots and Branches. . , Rogers is a common surname in these parts. The family lineage traces back to 1680 when the first John Rogers in the Delaware Valley, a Quaker immigrant from England, settled on the bluffs overlooking Crosswicks Creek a few miles to the south of here in Nottingham (Hamilton) Township. Over the centuries the Rogers family has been prolific in West Windsor and surrounding townships. , Look Up and Remember Us , Look up in the peak of the house gable and you will see the initials JRR picked out in glazed brick headers. Representing John and Rachel Rogers, this masonry script expresses the family pride in their home, a reminder to future Rogers generations of their forebears. This is the only surviving patterned brick house in Mercer County that has the homeowners' initials shown in this fashion. , Four Generations , John Rogers III, grandson of the first John and one of seven sons of John Rogers, Jr. and Martha Clayton, set up the farmstead that used to be centered here. With his brothers Robert and Matthew, John III acquired roughly 400 acres along the south side of the Assunpink Creek in 1746-47. A decade later the three brothers split the property between them and around the same time John and his wife Rachel established the home you see before you. John and Rachel had no children and upon John's death in 1793 the farm was inherited by their nephew, Ezekiel. From then on, the property passed down through Ezekiel's direct line to his son, John, in 1833; to John's son, Ezekiel, in 1870; and to Ezekiel's half-brother, William Tindall Rogers, in 1885. , The Family Plot , Beyond the house, in the small walled enclosure over to the right, are two weathered gravestones. The larger of the two, as its inscription relates, commemorates the passing of Rachel Rogers, wife of John Rogers 1II, who died in 1791. The smaller stone may have marked a child's burial or served as a footstone for an adult's grave. , Visitors should note that these stones do not mark an actual burial site today. Rachel and her husband John were both interred in a small family burial ground across the fields from the house; now lost in the woods. It was common practice for farm families to bury their dead in such plots, which over time were forgotten and overgrown. Rachel's gravestone and the smaller stone marker were retrieved from a hedgerow in 1971 and relocated closer to the house in 2001. , ( photo captions ) , 1. Part of a map of 1849 showing the Rogers Farmstead on the south side of the Assunpink Creek. , 2. Three views taken in 2015 showing the recreated family burial plot and the relocated Rogers family gravestones. , Restoration of the Rogers House was completed in 2017. Funding has been provided by the Mercer County Open Space Preservation Trust. Sign design by Hunter Research, Inc. and Douglas Scott. Image credits: Hunter Research, Inc.