Although Rogers may not have been the first to make stoneware in colonial North America, that he was at least one of the first must have elevated him to a position of prominence among colonial potters. Far from being a poor potter who conducted a business "with very little advantage to himself, and without any damage to Trade," he was supplying a colonial market that heretofore had been filled solely from England and Germany. There is a hint that he may have shipped his wares to North Carolina, because the _Virginia Gazette_ announced on September 21, 1739: "Cler'd out of York River ... September 11. Sloop Thomas and Tryal, of North Carolina, John Nelson, for North Carolina ... some Stone Ware."[225] Three years before, Rogers had sued in court to collect "a Bill Payable to him from one Richard Saunderson of North Carolina."[226] The possibility that the stoneware in the sloop _Thomas and Tryal_ had been made by Rogers is highly conjectural, since European imports often were redistributed and transshipped in American ports. But, since its cargo as a whole consisted of non-European materials, this still remains a possibility.
The most notable inference that Rogers' stoneware may have infiltrated distant colonial markets is found in the Petition of Isaac Parker to the Massachusetts Court to establish a stoneware manufactory in Charlestown, Massachusetts, filed in September 1742: "... there are large quantities of said ware imported into this Province every year from New York, Philadelphia, & Virginia, for which ... returns are mostly made in Silver and Gold by the gentn who receive them here."[227]
Since there is no evidence that stoneware was being made at this time in Virginia, other than at Yorktown, it is reasonable to suppose that the "poor potter's" heirs shipped stoneware all the way to New England and that they were paid in hard cash, as distinct from tobacco credits, which would have been the case with local customers. However this may be, the Rogers enterprise, even if its products were confined to Virginia, appears to have been extensive, wealth-producing, and quite the opposite of Governor Gooch's appraisal of it in his reports to the Board of Trade.
As to the location of his kilns, we know that Rogers owned two lots, where he apparently lived, at the northern boundary of the town. He also owned a warehouse by the riverside and other lots on which he was building dwellings when he died. He owned land at "Tarripin Point" and two lots in Williamsburg. Governor Gooch repeatedly located the pottery in Yorktown: "We have here at York Town upon York River one poor Potter's Work ...," or, "the Potter continues his Business (at York Town in this Colony)." This is rather good evidence that the kilns were within the town limits rather than at some outside location, such as "Tarripin Point." A waterfront location would have been desirable for many reasons, but, since a potter's kiln would have been a fire hazard not to only Rogers' but to other warehouses, it is questionable whether nearby kilns would have been tolerated. English practice was usually to locate potter's kilns at the far edges of towns or outside their limits. Nevertheless, there were many exceptions, and kilns sometimes were located near the water, especially when practical reasons of convenience in loading ships outweighed the dangers. The North Devon potteries were heavily committed to water transportation, and at least two of the kilns at Bideford in North Devon in the 17th century, for example, were located near the water in what were then densely settled areas.[228] The North Walk Pottery in nearby Barnstaple was also on the water's edge, close to a thickly populated area;[229] in 17th-century America we find a parallel in the pottery of William Vincent, located at the harbor's edge in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where it was easy for him to ship his wares along the coast.[230] The 18th-century potteries of Charlestown, Massachusetts, which also had wide markets, were clustered along the harbor shore amid a welter of wharves and warehouses.[231] It is conceivable, therefore, that the Yorktown waterfront may have been similarly exposed to the dangers of a potter's kiln, since Rogers transported his wares by water.