Nathaniel Rogers
Encyclopedia
Malton, North Yorkshire
Malton is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 4,000 people....
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
in his early career, later moving to London and then, during semi-retirement spent his winter seasons at Exeter. He is known more widely as the donor of stained glass windows to both Anglican churches and nonconformist chapels. He edited several medical books, authored poems and letters to newspapers, chaired baptist and related meetings, and gave lectures to Mechanics' Institutes and similar educational institutes in London and North Yorkshire.
One of Dr Rogers' most sought-after public lectures in the late 1830s was a two-evening lecture on Mythology of the Ancients. This was given at the Southwark Literary Society, the Finsbury Institution for Sunday School Teachers and Senior Scholars, the Croydon Literary and Scientific Institution, the Scarborough Mechanics Institute, and the Stepney Meeting Sabbath Sunday School Institute.
Nathaniel Rogers' first wife was Alice Dixon, daughter of the wealthy Charles Dixon; he married again in 1856 to Alice Casterton, widow of Henry Burnstead and daughter of William Casterton of Dalston.
Amongst his philanthropic works were donations to restore the Pulteney Monument at Westminster Abbey, a stately monument of different coloured marble; and stained glass windows at St. Paul's Cathedral, Acton Parish church, the Abney Park Chapel
Abney Park Chapel
Abney Park Chapel, is a Grade II Listed chapel, designed by William Hosking and built by John Jay that is situated in Europe's first wholly nondenominational cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, London....
, and Union Chapel, Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
.
One of the Canons at St. Paul's described Rogers' window with considerable praise: there is a glorious light, as if shining in from the heavens. The two angels are standing as if midway between heaven and earth; and the disciples are standing in different attitudes below, gazing upwards. To my mind it surpasses all that have yet been taken up. This beautiful stained glass window, given by Dr Rogers, was made by a Munich firm. It was placed at the east end of St. Paul's Cathedral. Nathaniel Rogers' window at Acton Parish Church was also well received, being described at the time as a beautiful stained glass window... in the south side of the parish church. Unlike the window at St. Paul's, this was, however, a family tribute. It was donated in memory of his father and mother who had married in the church. The window represented 'Charity', its text reading Charity believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things.
Dr Rogers was, by faith, a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, supporting their meetings and involvement in the non-denominational London Missionary Society
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
. As missionaries, the Baptists were particularly strong in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. Shortly after the death of William Knibb
William Knibb
William Knibb , English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica, is chiefly known for his work to free slaves.-Missionary in Jamaica:...
he was invited to chair a meeting of thr Malton
Malton, North Yorkshire
Malton is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 4,000 people....
Sunday School Baptists, when his support for Knibb
William Knibb
William Knibb , English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica, is chiefly known for his work to free slaves.-Missionary in Jamaica:...
and his Anti-slavery work became plain: We sympathise especially with our sable brethren in Jamaica; for great has been the loss in losing Knibb. To say that he was perfect would be to flatter humanity at the expense of truth... for perfection belongs not on earth but in heaven.
Throughout his life, Nathaniel Rogers was interested in his family history, believing himself to be descended in some way from the Protestant martyr of the same name, John Rogers. Though he claimed such descent, it is unclear whether he uncovered any evidence. However, he funded the restoration of more recent ancestral memorials, such as to James Rogers of Dagenham, born in 1741. Twenty years before his death, he designed a small white marble temple of the Corinthian order with pedimented stone roof, at Abney Park Cemetery
Abney Park Cemetery
Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, semi-public park arboretum, and...
in Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
. Dr Rogers's Family Tomb it proclaimed, in an inscription over the iron grilled entrance gate. This was the only mausoleum ever permitted by the largely Congregational Board of the non-denominational cemetery, given their distinctly Puritan leanings against any such grandeur in death in their garden cemetery and stood on the principal axis between the Abney Park Chapel
Abney Park Chapel
Abney Park Chapel, is a Grade II Listed chapel, designed by William Hosking and built by John Jay that is situated in Europe's first wholly nondenominational cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, London....
and historic gated entrance to Abney Park
Abney Park
The historic grounds of Abney Park are situated in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13ha park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Mary Abney and associated with Dr Isaac Watts. In the early 18th century, the park was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions...
. Its paired windows were carefully positioned to permit the original axial vista to co-exist with the mausoleum, by way of a small north-south 'through-view'. The Rogers' mausoleum is now grade II listed by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. It is the resting place of Rev. Samuel Oughton
Samuel Oughton
The Rev. Samuel Oughton , Baptist missionary to Jamaica 1836-1866, and colleague of William Knibb was an ardent slavery abolitionist who became an outspoken advocate of black labour rights in Jamaica during the gradual abolition of slavery in the late 1830s and thereafter. He was briefly...
and his wife, the Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
pastor, missionary and reformer, as well as a number of other Rogers' family members.