Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rogers, Richard (1532?-1597)
ROGERS, RICHARD (1532?–1597), dean of Canterbury and suffragan bishop of Dover, son of Ralph Rogers (d. 1559) of Sutton Valence in Kent, was born in 1532 or 1533. His sister Catherine married as her second husband Thomas Cranmer, only son of the archbishop, and his cousin, Sir Edward Rogers [q. v.], comptroller of Queen Elizabeth's household, is separately noticed. Richard is said to have been a member of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1552 and B.D. in 1562. On 18 March 1555–6 he was admitted B.A. at Oxford, and in May 1560 he proceeded M.A. During the reign of Queen Mary he is said to have been an exile for religion. Soon after Elizabeth's accession, probably in 1559, he was made archdeacon of St. Asaph, and on 11 Feb. 1560–1 was presented to the rectory of Great Dunmow in Essex, which he resigned in 1564. He sat in the convocation of 1562–1563, when he subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles and the request for a modification of certain rites and ceremonies. He also held the livings of Llanarmon in the diocese of St. Asaph and Little Canfield in Essex, which he resigned in 1565 and 1566; the rectory of ‘Pasthyn’ in the diocese of St. Asaph he retained till his death. In 1566 he was collated to the prebend of Ealdland in St. Paul's Cathedral, resigning the archdeaconry of St. Asaph. On 19 Oct. 1567 Archbishop Parker presented him to the rectory of Great Chart in Kent, and on 12 May 1568 the queen nominated him, on Parker's recommendation, to be suffragan bishop of Dover. In 1569 he was placed on a commission to visit the city and diocese of Canterbury, and he received Elizabeth when she visited Canterbury in 1573. In 1575 Parker appointed him overseer of his will, and left him one of his options. On 16 Sept. 1584 he was installed dean of Canterbury, and in 1595 he was collated to the mastership of Eastgate hospital in Canterbury, and to the rectory of Midley in Kent. In December he was commissioned to inquire into the number of recusants and sectaries in his diocese. He died on 19 May 1597, and was buried in the dean's chapel in Canterbury Cathedral. By his wife Ann (d. 1613) he left several children, of whom Francis (d. 1638) was rector of St. Margaret's, Canterbury. The suffragan bishopric of Dover lapsed at his death, and was not revived until the appointment of Edward Parry (1830–1890) [q. v.] in 1870.
[Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 33924, ff. 18, 21 (letters from Rogers); Todd's Account of the Deans of Canterbury, 1793, pp. 50–65; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 224; Boase's Reg. Univ. Oxon. i. 231; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Waters's Chesters of Chicheley, ii. 395; Parker Corresp. pp. 370, 475; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1560–97; Willis's Survey of the Diocese of St. Asaph; Hasted's Kent, iii. 101, 538, 590, 630; Newcourt's Rep. Eccl.; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy; Strype's Works, passim; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 777; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ii. 37.]