William Rogers

William Rogers (1751-1824) was born in Rhode Island. Rogers was the first student at College of Rhode Island (now Brown University), studying under James Manning. After his graduation in 1769, he served for a time as principal of an academy at Newport, Rhode Island. In December 1771 he succeeded Morgan Edwards as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, where he was ordained on 31 May 1772. He resigned in 1775 and the next year became a chaplain in the American army, a position he retained until 1781. He preached occasionally and served in various societies, but never served as pastor again. In 1789 he was appointed professor of oratory and English literature at the College of Philadelphia, and in 1792 to its successor, the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained until his retirement in 1811. In 1790 he served as vice-president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. During his years in Philadelphia, he was active in evangelism, politics, and missions, serving in 1816-1817 as a delegate to the Pennsylvania State General Assembly. He served as vice president of the General Missionary Convention and was instrumental in the founding of the American Baptist national organization. Rogers was a frequent correspondent of John Rippon, William Carey, and Samuel Pearce, doing much to promote the Serampore Mission within the Philadelphia Baptist Association and among Baptists throughout America. Rogers welcomed Morgan Rhees to Philadelphia and introduced him to Isaac Backus in June 1795 as “one of our ministers from Wales.” Rogers’s wife, Hannah, a former member of the society of Friends, died on 10 October 1793, a victim of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia that year. See Act of Incorporation and Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society, for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery … Also, a List of Those who have been Elected Members of the Society (Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, 1860), 16; Hayden, “Kettering 1792 and Philadelphia 1814,” 9-11, 17-18; Hywel Davies, “The American Revolution and the Baptist Atlantic,” Baptist Quarterly 36 (1995-1996): 141-142, 146; John Rippon, ed., Baptist Annual Register, vol. 2 (1794-97), pp. 57-61; William H. Brackney, ed., Historical Dictionary of the Baptists. Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements, vol. 25. (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999), 357-358.