Brief guide to manuscripts collections| William L. Clements Library The University of Michigan Robert Rogers Papers |
Reared in New Hampshire, Robert Rogers joined the army in 1755 and was given command of a company of rangers the next year. In 1758 he became a major in charge of nine companies, and the following year he executed a raid on the Indians of Saint Francis, Que., nearly annihilating the village. Rogers was received the surrender of Detroit from the French in 1760. After his marriage to Elizabeth Browne in 1761, he participated in the Cherokee War in North Carolina, returning to reinforce the post at Detroit in 1763, meeting defeat in the battle of Bloody Run.
Rogers went to England in 1765 to seek advancement, and while there, published three books on America. Lionized as a hero, he obtained the command of Fort Michilimackinac, and returned to America with his wife, reaching the remote post in August, 1766. His administration was extravagant, and rumors of intended treason reached General Thomas Gage in December, 1767. Arrested on suspicion of treason and taken to Montreal the next spring, Rogers was tried, but acquitted. He returned to England, where he remained until the Revolutionary War broke out. He went back to America and sought a commission, but Washington, suspicious that he held Tory sympathies, had him arrested, only to have Rogers escape in 1776 and raised the Loyalist Queen's Rangers. After a rout of the unit, he was relieved of its command. Mrs. Rogers divorced him in 1778, and two years later he went to England for the final time, remaining in London until his death.
Letters of Robert Rogers, American soldier, adventurer.
This collection contains 21 letters from Rogers to his wife, Elizabeth Browne Rogers (1741-1812), written from various places in the colonies and from London, 1761-1775. Among these are letters written during his incarceration at Montreal and his self-imposed exile in England prior to the Revolution. These letters form an interesting resource for the study of family relationship, and include Elizabeth's petititon for divorce (1778) and a letter from Miss B.V.M. Flagg to Elizabeth protesting Elizabeth's disapproval of her as a potential daughter-in-law.
There are 15 letters, 1798-1801, from John Roche, Jr. (1781-1807) to his father and stepmother (Elizabeth Brown Rogers Roche), in which he discusses his naval career aboard the U.S.S. Constitution. There are six letters to Mrs. Rogers from her son Arthur (d. 1841), her stepson John Roche, Jr., and others, and 14 letters from young Roche to his father.
Purchased, 1932 and 1940
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