The above is taken from the original, on file in the Probate Office at Ipswich.* INVENTORY. Mr. Rogers's real estate was appraised at Silver plate, including a gold ring and silver inkstand, Wearing apparel, Nine horses and colts, £966 0 0 22 0 0 17 17 0 90 00 110 bushels of wheat, barley, and Indian corn, 24 10 0 £1,535 19 9 Latin books, English books, Debts due the estate, bees, Saddle, bridle, and pillion, 1. 0. 0: Stock of Bacon, 3.0.0; Other provisions, &c., 11.9.4, Done March 5th, 1660–1. By Deacon Maximilian Jewett, Ensign Samuel Brocklebank, and John Lambert. * The foregoing document has been submitted to the consideration of several competent judges, including some of our Baptist friends, It was during Mr. Rogers's ministry, viz. September 19th, 1644, two churches were appointed to be gathered, the one at Haverhill, the other at Andover, (both upon Merrimack River.) They had given notice thereof to the magistrates and ministers of the neighbouring churches, as the manner is with them in New England. The meeting of the assembly was to be at that time at Rowley, (the forementioned plantations, being then but newly erected, were not capable to entertain them that were likely to be gathered together on that occasion.) But when they were assembled, most of those who were to join together in church fellowship at that time, refused to make the confession of their faith and repentance, because, as was said, they declared it openly before in other churches, upon their admission into them. Whereupon, the messengers of the churches not being satisfied, the assembly broke up before they had accomplished what they intended. But in October, 1645, messengers of churches met together again on the same account, when such satisfaction was given, that Mr. John Ward was ordained pastor of the church of Haverhill on the north side of the said Merrimack, and Mr. John Woodbridge was ordained pastor of the church of Andover on the south side of the same. and a very earnest desire expressed for its publication entire. With that request, we have, not without some hesitation, concluded to comply. It contains some expressions, which, at this day, are liable to misapprehension. The character of the venerable testator is well known. He had made extraordinary attainments in the divine life, and was eminently adorned with the Christian graces. All this is beyond the reach of reasonable doubt. But he shared in the errors of the times. One of those errors consisted in the indulgence of undue severity upon religious opponents. It was a fault, we freely admit, which can never be wholly excused, though it certainly admits of great palliation. INSCRIPTION UPON MR. ROGERS'S MONUMENT. "Sacred to the memory of the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, first minister of the gospel in Rowley, who emigrated from Britain to this place, with his church and flock, A. D. 1638. He finished his labors and life, January 23, 1660, in his seventieth year. "He was a man of eminent piety, zeal, and abilities. "His strains of oratory were delightful. Regeneration and union to Jesus Christ by faith, were the points on which he principally insisted; he so remarkably described the feelings, exercises, motives, and characters of his hearers, that they were ready to exclaim, 'Who hath told him all this.' With the youth he took great pains, and was a tree of knowledge, laden with fruit, which children could reach. "He bequeathed a part of his lands to the town of Rowley, for the support of the gospel, which generous benefaction, we (in the first parish) enjoy to the present day; and here gratefully commemorate, by raising this monument to his memory. A. D. 1805." Mr. Rogers was at first buried at the foot of where the Rev. Mr. Phillips's grave and monument now are. On the 23d of October, 1805, the grave was opened, and his bones taken up and put in a new box or coffin and placed beneath the monument erected to his memory. His bones were mostly entire, the head quite so; some hair remained, adhering to the head by pressure; the callus upon his right arm, where it was broken above the elbow, was perceptible. He having been dead one hundred and forty-five years, nine months. Mr. Rogers's house stood upon land now owned by Deacon Samuel P. Jewett, a part of the ground upon which it stood, is (1840) covered by a house lately erected by said Deacon S. P. Jewett. In digging the southerly part of the cellar, the northerly part of the stoning of Mr. Rogers's cellar was taken up. No house has stood upon that site, since Mr. Rogers's was taken down, about the year 1696. The first covenant found upon the records of the first church in Rowley, is the following. "You do solemnly covenant and promise before the Lord and his people, that by his help, forsaking all ungodliness and former lusts in your ignorance, you do avouch the Lord Jehovah Elohim, one God in three persons, to be your God and portion; you do also own the Lord Jesus the only supreme head and saviour of his church, to be your King, Priest, and Prophet; and you do further covenant to walk in a professed subjection unto all the holy ordinances and orders that Christ has appointed in his house; and to walk as becomes God's covenanting servant with the members of this church, unto mutual edification and helpfulness, according to the rule of the gospel, so long as God shall continue you a member of this church of Christ. "We also do acknowledge ourselves engaged by the same solemn covenant to watch over you, and to afford all christian helpfulness to your edification, as God has required, and by his assistance." A. 2. The Rev. Samuel Phillips married, in 1651, Sarah, daughter of Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, a descendant of John Appleton, who died at Great Waldingfield, in Suffolk, England, in 1436.. By her, who died 15 July, 1714, aged eighty-six, he had eleven children; 1. Samuel, born 1654, died young; 2. Sarah, born 1656, married Stephen Mighill; 3. Samuel, born 1658, was a goldsmith and settled in Salem, married Mary, daughter of the Rev. John Emerson, of Gloucester, had two sons and four daughters; 4. George, born 1659, died young; 5. Elizabeth, born 1661, died young; 6. Ezekiel, born 1662, died young; 7. George, born 1664, graduated at Harvard College 1686, settled in the ministry at Brookhaven, on Long Island, New York, 1697, where he died 1739, aged seventy-five, (he left three sons, George, William, and John; and three daughters); 8. Elizabeth, born 1665, married the Rev. Edward Payson; 9. Dorcas, born 1667; 10. Mary, born 1668; and 11. John, born 1670; the three last probably died young. Mr. Phillips was not wholly exempt from trouble; a portion of this good man's life was rendered unhappy by an event which took place incident to Mr. Rogers's death. A short time before that event happened, the selectmen (Mr. Philip Nelson, Ezekiel Northend, William Stickney, Thomas Jenney, and John Pickard,) laid a rate of £ 60, to pay his salary for the then current year, which began in April; in January he died, about three months before the expiration of the year; soon after his death, the selectmen recalled the tax list from the collector, (Deacon Maximilian Jewett,) and made a new assessment of £ 50, committing the list to the same collector, ordering him to pay Mrs. Rogers £ 45, in full for the three fourths of the year which Mr. Rogers lived; the other £5 of the assessment was ordered to Mr. Phillips, in consideration of his having carried on the work of the ministry alone, during Mr. Rogers's sickness, &c. Mrs. Rogers took it unkind in the selectmen thus to recall and alter the assessment, after they had once ordered the £60 to be paid her husband, and she accused Mr. Phillips of receiving and retaining £ 5, which of right belonged to her. A majority of said selectmen even maintained that their doings in the case was just, and that they were not bound to do more. It appears by the deposition of John Pickard, one of said. selectmen, (under date of June 5, 1679,) that all the selectmen were well agreed in reducing the tax list, that Mr. Nelson himself wrote the new list; yet, not long after this, Mr. Nelson undertakes to assist Mrs. Rogers in enforcing |