Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rogers, Timothy (1589-1650?)

686955Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 49 — Rogers, Timothy (1589-1650?)1897Alexander Gordon

ROGERS, TIMOTHY (1589–1650?), puritan divine, eldest son of Vincent Rogers, rector of Stratford-le-Bow, Middlesex, was born at Stratford, and baptised there on 30 March 1589. His father is supposed to have been a grandson of John Rogers (1500?–1555) [q. v.] Nehemiah Rogers [q. v.] was his younger brother. From the title-page of Timothy's ‘Roman-Catharist,’ it appears that he was preacher at Steeple, Essex, in 1621, but he does not seem to have held the vicarage. In 1623 he became perpetual curate of Pontesbright or Chapel, Essex, and held this living till 1650. On 19 Aug. 1636 he was appointed to the vicarage of All Saints', Sudbury, Suffolk. How long he held this preferment is not certain. In 1648 he was a member of the twelfth or Lexden classis in the presbyterian organisation for Essex, and in the same year he signed the ‘Testimony’ of Essex ministers as ‘pastor of Chappel.’ He probably died in 1650. His son Samuel was admitted vicar of Great Tey, Essex, on 27 Jan. 1637–8, on the presentation of his uncle Nehemiah.

Rogers published: 1. ‘The Righteous Man's Evidence for Heaven,’ &c., 1619, 8vo (Watt); 8th edit. 1629, 24mo; 12th edit. 1637, 12mo; also Glasgow, 1784, 12mo; and in French, ‘L'Héritage du Ciel,’ Amsterdam, 1703, 8vo. 2. ‘The Roman Catharist,’ &c. (1612), 4to. 3. ‘Good Newes from Heaven,’ 1628, 24mo; 3rd edit. 1631, 12mo. 4. ‘A Faithfull Friend true to the Soul … added, the Christian Jewell of Faith,’ 1653, 12mo.

[Morant's Essex, 1768, ii. 208; Chester's John Rogers, 1861, pp. 252, 275 sq.; David's Evang. Nonconformity in Essex, 1863, pp. 294 sq.]

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