John and James Rogers, Jr., in the course of trade, visited Newport, R.I., and there first embraced Sabbatarian principles and were baptized in 1674; Jonathan in 1675; James Rogers, senior, with his wife and daughter Bathsheba, in 1676, and these were received as members of the Seventh Day Church at Newport.[3]
Although New London, at that time, included all that is now known as Groton, Ledyard, Stonington, Montville, Waterford and East Lyme, we find, by the proportion which James Rogers paid for the support of the minister, that his property amounted to about one-tenth of that of the entire plantation. The minister’s salary was £80 a year. Says Miss Caulkins: “Rate lists for the minister’s tax are extant for the years 1664, 1666 and 1667. In this list the amount of each man’s taxable property is given and the rate levied upon it is carried out. The assessment of James Rogers is nearly double that of any other inhabitant.” His rate was £7 19s. 10d., nearly three times that of Governor Winthrop, which was £2 14s.
The first Baptist church of Newport was formed before May, 1639, by some excommunicated members of the church at Boston and others. From its organization, it rejected the supervision of civil magistrates. Dr. John Clarke was its founder and first pastor. In 1671, several member of Mr. Clarke’s church organized themselves into the Sabbatarian or Seventh Day Baptist Church of Newport (then Aquedneck) which James Rogers and his family joined, as above stated.
As James Rogers, senior, against whom even the tongue of slander has been silent, was among the first to feel the ecclesiastical lash, a few words more concerning him from the pen of Miss Caulkins are here given:—
The elder James Rogers was an upright, circumspect man. His death occurred in February, 1688. The will is on file in the probate office in New London in the handwriting of his son John, from the preamble of which we quote.
“What I have of this world I leave among you, desiring you not to fall out about it; but let your love one to another appear more than to the estate I leave with you, which is but of this world; and for your comfort I signify to you that I have a perfect assurance of an interest in Jesus Christ and an eternal happy estate in the world to come, and do know and see that my name is written in the book of life, and therefore mourn not for me as they that are without hope.”