ROGERS
ROGERS
olJ. and later learned the printer's trade, and
edited a political newspaper. lie was a Demo-
cratic representative from Pennsylvania in the
lotli congress in place of John Ross, resigned, and
served also in the ICth. 17th and 18th congresses,
181S-24. He resigned liisseat in the ISth congress,
April 20. 1824, having been appointed recorder
of deeds for Northampton county. Pa., and was
succeeded in congress by George Wolf of Easton.
lie was a trustee of Lafayette college. 1826-32;
was commissioned brigadier-general in the state
militia, and in 18:31 was appointed U.S. naval
olficer in Philadelphia. He is the author of: ^4
Xeic American Bkujruphical Dictionary: or Re-
membrance of the Dcparti'd Heroes, Sages and
Statesmen of America (182:!; 2d ed., 1829). He
di.d in Philadelphia. Pa., Nov. 30, 1832.
ROGERS, Wiliiam, educator, was born in Newport, R.I., July 22. 1751; .second son of Capt. "William and Sarah Rogers. He was the first stu- dent at Rhodo Island college (Brown university) where lie was graduated. A.B., 17G9, A.M., 1772. He was principal of an academy at Newport, R.I., in 1770: was ordained to the Baptist ministry in May. 1772, and was pastor of the First Baptist church, Philadelphia, Pa., 1772-75; battalion chaplain in the Continental army, 1776-78; brig- ade chaplain, 1778-81. and retired from the army in 1781. He engaged in preaching, 1781-89, and was professor of oratory and English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, 1789-1811. He was twice married; first to a daughter of "William Gardner of Philadelphia, who died of yellow fever. Oct. 10, 1793; and secondly, Jan. 15, 1795, to Sunannah, daughter of Joseph Marsh of Philadelphia. He was vice-president of the Penn- sylvania Societj' for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1790. and a member of the Maryland society in 1704; vice-president of the Philadel- pliia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons in 1797: chaplain of the Philadelphia militia legion in 1805; senior chaplain of the New- England society of Philadelphia in 1816; a rep- resentative in the state legislature, 1816-17, and vice-president of the Religious Historical society of Piiiladelphia in 1819. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred on him by the Univei'sity of Pennsylvania in 1773; by Yale college in 1780 and by the College of New Jersey in 1786, and tliat of D.D. by the University of Pennsylvania in 1790. He was correspondent and editor of the Evangelical Magazine of London in 1802 and is the author of: .4 Circular Letter on Jxvstification (1785): An Introductory Praijer (llSd); A Sermon on the Death of the Rev. Oliver Hart (1796); Intro- ductory I^ayer Occasioned by the Death of Gen- eral Washington (1800, and a circular letter on Christian .Missions. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., April 7, 1824.
ROGERS, William Augustus, astronomer,
was horn in Waterford, Conn., Nov. 13, 1832; son
of David Potter and Mary Ann (Potter) Rogers;
grandson of David and Mary (Potter) Rogers and
of George and Mary (Stillman) Potter, and a de-
scendant of James Rogers. He vvls graduated
from Brown university in 1857; was married,
July 15, 1857, to Rebecca Jane Titsworth: was a
teacher at Alfred academy, 1857-58; professor
of mathematics and astronomy there, 18"i8-70;
studied theoretical and applied mechanics at the
Sheffield Sc-ientific school of Yale, 1806-67. and
astronomy at Harvard universit}'. where he .served
as assistant for six months. During the civil war
he served in the U.S. navy, 1864-65. He built
and equipped the observatory at Alfred and was
assistant at the Harvard observatory, 1870-77, and
assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard,
1877-86. In 1886 he was chosen professor of as-
tronomy and physics at Colby univer.sity, Water-
ville. Me. He made a special study of the c(m-
struction of comparators for the determination
of differences in length, which resulted in the
construction of the Rogers- Bond universal com-
parator. In 1880 he went abroad to obtain au-
thorized copies of the Engli.sh and French stand-
ards of lengths which were used as the bases of
comparison for the bars that he had constructed,
and that were adopted as standards of length by
all the important colleges, observatories and gov-
ernment institutions. The honorary degree of
A.M. was conferred on him by Yale in 1880: that
that of Ph.D. by Alfred university in 1886 and
that of LL.D. by Brown university in 1891. He
was elected a fellow of the Royal society of Lon-
don in 1880 and later became an honorarj' fellow;
a member of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and its vice-president,
1882-83. presiding over the section in mathematics
and astronomy and in 1886 he was chosen presi-
dent of the American Society of Microscopists.
He is the author of: Annals of Harvard College
Observatory (5 vols.), and Obscure Heat as an
Agent in Producing Expansion in Metals under
Air Contact (1894). He died in Waterville, Me.»
Marcli 1. 1898.
ROGERS, William Barton, educator, was born in Piiiladelphia, Pa., Dec. 7, 1804; son of Patrick Kerr and Hannah (Blythe) Rogers; grandson of Robert and Sarah (Kerr) Rogers and of James and Bessie (Bell) Blythe; great-grandson of Robert Rogers of Edergole, Ireland, andof James Bell, a mathematical instrument-maker of Lon- donderi-y, England. Patrick Kerr Rogers (1776- 1828) having published articles in the Dublin newspapers during the Irish Rebellion, hostile to the government, sailed for America to escape arrest, and arrived in Pliiladelidiia, Pa., in Au- gust, 1798. He was graduated from the ined-
