Elizabeth Rogers (1609- )

Elizabeth Rogers was baptized 26 Dec 1609 in Watford, England. She is the daughter of Thomas Rogers, the Mayflower passenger, and the 10th great-grandaunt of my son-in-law in his father’s line.

Elizabeth was the first daughter, after 4 sons, of whom two died young. Before 1617 she moved with the family to Leiden, The Netherlands; her father being one of the Separatists, who fled England. Her father (a camlet merchant) bought a house in Leiden, and even became a burgher of the town. But in 1620 Thomas and his son Joseph are on the Mayflower on their way to the New World.

Elizabeth and the rest of the family, her mother Alice (Elsgen), sister Margaret, and older brother John stay in Leiden for the time being. They are listed in a tax list in 1622. John came to Plymouth, he is listed in a tax list in 1633, and is identified as Joseph’s brother. William Bradford, in his listing of the Mayflower passenger, states that the other children of Thomas Rogers came later, but there are no records in New England of either Elizabeth or Margaret. Some people say Elizabeth married Samuel Eddy in Plymouth, but there is also a marriage record in Watford for an Elizabeth Rogers and Robert Rodway in 1635⁽¹⁾. She could have gone back to England. Or she may have died in Leiden: a Lysbeth Rogier died in Leiden in Oct 1624 in the Cecilia Hospital for women of the pest.⁽²⁾

There is plenty more information on the Mayflower passengers, see Pilgim Hall Museum and Mayflower History.com for some easily available online resources.

For me, one of the fascinating things here is the intersection between American and Dutch history, and between the various lines of my grandchildren’s ancestry.

1. Clifford L Stott, “The English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his wife Alice (Cosford) Rogers,” The Genealogist 10, #2 (1998): 138-149. Available at http://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/trleiden.html
2. Doodboeken Gasthuizen. Doodboek, 1615-1648, tevens van het Caecilia-gasthuis, 1626-1648., archiefnummer 504, Overlijden Gasthuizen, inventarisnummer 55, blad Inv.nr. 55 folio 195. From: Erfgoed Leiden