ROGERS, Hugh (1622-?54), of Cannington, Som.

The Rogers family of Cannington, near Bridgwater, settled in Somerset in the mid-sixteenth century, being descended from a prominent Wiltshire family whose seat lay at Bradford-on-Avon.18Vis. Som. 1623, 128. A distant ancestor, Thomas Rogers, was a serjeant-at-law in the late fifteenth century, and the latter’s grandson, Sir Edward Rogers (d. 1582) served as comptroller of the household to Queen Elizabeth I. The latter’s own grandson, Edward (d. 1627) – the grandfather of our MP – married a daughter of Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham†.19Wilts. Arch. Mag. v (1859), 367; Somerset Wills, ii. 91-2. Hugh Rogers’ father, meanwhile, married into another of Somerset’s most prominent families, the Smyths of Long Ashton.20Wilts. Arch. Mag. v, 367.

Hugh Rogers inherited the family estate as a minor, shortly after matriculating at Oxford. After what appear to have been competing claims to his wardship, including from his kinsman Sir John Hele, it was sold to an uncle, Thomas Smyth I* of Long Ashton, for £2,000.21Bristol RO, AC/36074/151/b, AC/S/11; Sales of Wards, 144-6. The prestige of the Smyth family, as much as that of Rogers’ own ancestry, probably helped secure his marriage, on 22 October 1640, to the eldest daughter of Sir Edward Bayntun* of Bromham in north west Wiltshire. A volume of verse published at Oxford celebrated the young couple.22Gamelia. On the happy marriage of...HR Esq. and the vertuous AB (Oxford, 1640).

At his marriage Rogers was recorded in the Bromham register as being of the parish, and may have been residing for some time in the Bayntun household.23Bromham par. reg. It was doubtless through the influence of Sir Edward that four days after the wedding Rogers, still only 18 years old, was elected to the Long Parliament at nearby Calne.24C219/43, pt iii. box 5 no. 35. His only appearances in the records of the House before the outbreak of civil war were in May 1641, when he took the Protestation, and on 14 April 1642, when he was a messenger to the Lords, although this partly concerned important communication from the king, and, young as he was, presumably rested on a certain recognition of his person and standing, or at least that of his patrons.25CJ ii. 133b; LJ iv. 717a. On 22 July he was among absentees summoned to attend Parliament, but in fact was in the unimpeachable company of leading parliamentarians in Somerset, organising a muster and gathering ammunition.26CJ ii. 685b; The Lord Marquesse of Hertford, his letter (1642), 5, [9] (E.109.24). Suspicion regarding his allegiance remained: on 20 August he was named alongside two future royalists in another summons, on pain of being proceeded against for contempt.27CJ ii. 728b. However, on 10 September he signed a letter despatched from Dorset by William Russell*, 5th earl of Bedford, Alexander Popham* and others describing the engagement of Parliament’s forces at Sherborne.28A relation of the actions of the Parliaments forces, under the command of the Earl of Bedford generall of the horse (1642), 6 (E.116.42)

Over the next few months Rogers was nominated to a number of local commissions, but he remained a shadowy figure in the Commons.29A. and O. His sole contribution to proceedings again involved acting as a messenger between the two Houses. On the face of it, his employment on 25 March to seek a conference to determine a justification of why Parliament could not accept the king’s proposals for peace might betoken a commitment to the war effort at this point.30Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 124; CJ iii. 19a; LJ v. 671b. But tagging along in the wake of the maverick Bayntun, who had been replaced at the end of January as commander of parliamentarian forces in Wiltshire, and had pursued to Westminster a feud with the family of his rival Sir Edward Hungerford*, took Rogers into difficult territory. In June he subscribed the parliamentary covenant, but when shortly after 9 August Bayntun withdrew to the Isle of Wight, Rogers accompanied him.31CJ iii. 118a. On 24 August the House summoned the pair to attend.32CJ iii. 218a. Two days later Bayntun wrote from Newport to Sir Edward Hyde* in the hope of securing a pardon from the king for himself and Rogers, but the same day they were apprehended (Bayntun uttering foul-mouthed allegations against John Pym* and William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Say and Sele), and sent up to London under guard.33CCSP i. 244; CJ iii. 199b; Harl. 165, f. 167v; Bodl. Tanner 62, 303, 313.

Unlike Bayntun, Rogers seems to have avoided being sent to the Tower; like his father-in-law he resumed his seat in the Commons. The only other mentions of Rogers in the parliamentary record before Pride’s Purge, however, related to his absence. Granted leave to return to Somerset for two months in July 1645, upon Bayntun’s motion, he was granted leave again in January 1647, on grounds of ill-health.34CJ iv. 223a; v. 43a; Harl. 166, f. 246v. Subsequently, Rogers was absent at calls of the House in October 1647, April 1648, and September 1648, and on the last occasion was not excused.35CJ v. 330b, 543b; vi. 34a. Meanwhile, Anne Rogers having died, in March 1648 he married for the second time, taking as his bride the widow of his kinsman Sir John Hele, who had been sequestered as a royalist.36Cannington par. reg. Although it is not certain that he was present at the time, Rogers was secluded at Pride’s Purge in December 1648.37A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62).

However, at his wedding the parish register referred to him as ‘colonel’ and he still had the militia office in 1650. He was named to the commission of the peace and readmitted to the House on 20 November that year.38CJ vi. 499b. As in the early 1640s, however, Rogers received no committee appointments and left no sign of active presence in the Commons, although his zeal for the regime is evident from his offer in August 1651 to join Lord Chief Justice Henry Rolle† and Alexander Popham* in providing and maintaining 60 dragoons for the defence of Somerset.39CSP Dom. 1651, p. 384. Nevertheless, Rogers’ decision to return to Parliament may also have been connected to his attempt to secure control of estates in Devon which had been acquired through his second marriage, and which were the subject of a dispute over an unpaid sequestration fine.40CCC 542, 2894; C5/13/109; C10/37/100. It is unclear whether this matter was resolved before Rogers’ death, which occurred after 8 July 1653, when he was granted lodgings once held by Denis Bond* – a hint of perceived usefulness to the regime – but probably before March 1654.41CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 14; HMC Lothian, 85; C6/123/84. Under an entail, his heir was his uncle Henry Rogers (d. 1672), who was also the executor of Sir John Hele and who may have played a more important role in the MP’s life than readily appears. The MP’s widow rapidly remarried a namesake and former ward of her first husband, John Hele* of Easton in Gordano, who then launched litigation against Henry.42C6/44/63; C6/123/84; C6/164/109; VCH Som. iv. 142, 144; PROB11/340/29. The MP’s only surviving daughter Helena married Sir Francis Popham†, who entered Parliament in 1669, and was the mother of Alexander Popham†, who inherited the Rogers estates from Henry and sat for Somerset seats after 1689.43HP Commons 1660-1690; HP Commons 1690-1715.