Rogers, Ezekiel (1584-01-01 - 1661-01-23)

Ezekiel Rogers was born around 1584, to Richard Rogers, priest at Wethersfield in Essex. He graduated MA from Christ's College in 1652 and was a chaplain for Sir Francis Barrington in Essex, and then gained a living at Rowley (Yorkshire). He became part of the puritan movement and was suspended. In 1638, he was one of a party of twenty families who emigrated to New England and was established as a freeman of Massachusetts in 1639. Their group established a township, which they named Rowley. In 1639 Rogers was appointed pastor of the new township. He preached before the general synod at Cambridge in 1647. He married three times but had no issue: first to Sarah Everard, second to the daughter of John Wilson (a New England Divine) and thirdly to Mary Barker. In 1642 he published a short treatise, "The Chief Grounds of the Christian Religion".