Josias Rogers (1755-95)
Rogers survived being taken prisoner three times in the American Revolutionary War and performed outstanding service in the early years of the French Revolutionary War before losing his life to yellow fever.
Born in Lymington, Hampshire, where his father, William Rogers, was a businessman, he was the elder brother of Rear-Admiral Thomas Rogers (1764-1814), and of Lieutenant James Rogers (1769-94).
Following an education in Wiltshire, Rogers entered the Navy in October 1771 aboard the Arethusa 36, Captain Andrew Snape Hamond, in which frigate he went out to North America. In 1775, with the rebellious colonies arming for war, he transferred with Hamond to the Roebuck 44 on the same station. During March of the following year, whilst in command of a leaking prize which he had boarded with four men in appalling wintry conditions, his own men and the original crew conspired to drive the vessel ashore near Chesapeake Bay, believing it was the only way to save their lives. Rogers was captured by the Americans and held in trying circumstances in the interior of the country. After being detained for about a year, he escaped his captors with a small group of prisoners, and he was eventually able to rejoin the Roebuck in the Delaware. The next eighteen months were spent on the American coast commanding several of the Roebuck’s tenders in cutting-out expeditions. On 19 October 1778, shortly after recovering from a life-threatening fever which accounted for up to forty of his shipmates, he was commissioned lieutenant, then in his 23rd year.
Appointed to the sloop Haerlem 12 (also spelled Haarlem or Harlem) in November 1778, Rogers commanded her in Commodore Sir George Collier’s expedition to Virginia in May 1779, but on 16 July this vessel was chased ashore by American privateers, and he was again taken prisoner . After being released, he commanded a small vessel, the Fury, in the successful attack on Charleston on 11 May 1780, during which operation he took to a canoe in the dead of night and gallantly cut away the boom to allow the British ships into the harbour.
On 2 December 1780 Rogers was promoted commander of the prize sloop General Monk 20 (originally the American privateer General Washington), with a crew of 110 men. In March 1781 she blockaded Annapolis in company with the sloop Hope 14, Commander William Thomas, and by the middle of May she was back at New York. Over the eighteen months in which he commanded the General Monk she captured more than sixty enemy vessels; the resulting prize money later allowed him to purchase the estate of St. Austin’s in Boldre, near Lymington, from Captain Hamond. Another, probably less lucrative but more significant capture, occurred on 9 August 1781, when the General Monk and the Iris, 32 (George Dawson) took one of the last remaining American major warships, the frigate Trumbull of 28 guns.
The General Monk’s run of success came to an end on 8 April 1782 when, having arrived off the Delaware Capes the night before in company with the Quebec 32, Captain Christopher Mason, the two captains discovered eight rebel vessels in Cape May harbour. While the Quebec stood up the Delaware to prevent the Americans’ retreat to Philadelphia, the General Monk set off after the enemy in company with a loyalist privateer, the Fair American, and they soon drove ashore the General Green 16 and forced the surrender of a 14-gun brig. Unfortunately, the Fair American also ran aground, and thus the General Monk was unsupported when she came up with the Hyder Ali 18. The American privateer initially displayed signs of flight before suddenly putting her helm over and lying athwart Rogers’ vessel. The General Monk avoided being raked, but at pistol-shot range her poorly mounted carronades proved ‘unmanageable’, and for the last ten minutes of a half-hour engagement she could only respond to the rebel’s long nine and six-pounder cannons with musketry. Rogers was badly wounded in the foot, his lieutenant and sailing master were slain, and another seven men were killed and twenty-nine wounded – he was thus forced to strike his colours. Again exchanged, he returned to England in September, but Rogers’ wound consigned him to crutches for some time and causes him some debilitation for at least another five years.
In May 1783, following the end of the American Revolutionary War, Rogers commissioned the new sloop Speedy 14 for service in the North Sea, being engaged in anti-smuggling operations off the Humber and impounding about twenty ships before paying her off in January 1787. On one occasion when arresting a deserter, he faced down a mob with a drawn sword. During this period, he took a cottage in Great Yarmouth, where he was often visited by his friend Prince William, the future King William IV.
On 1 December 1787 (now 31 years old), he was posted captain of the Lapwing 28 for purposes of rank only by Lord Howe, the First Lord of the Admiralty. He was tapped to become flag-captain to Rear-Admiral Sir John Jervis aboard the Hannibal 74 during the Dutch Armament, although in the event he was not required to take up that post. From the end of July 1790 to early December, he did serve as flag-captain to Jervis aboard the newly commissioned Prince 98 during the Spanish Armament, sailing from Plymouth for Portsmouth in mid-September to join the fleet. Unfortunately, in the same year he lost £2,000 of his fortune when his bank failed. It is said that when someone commiserated him on his loss, he light-heartedly replied ‘Cheer up, I’ll go to sea and get more’.
Though he may have suffered in the early 1790’s through his professional association with the ultra-Whig, Sir John Jervis, in June 1793, four months after the beginning of the French Revolutionary War, Rogers commissioned the frigate Quebec 32 with a largely volunteer crew. He spent the next few months in the Downs squadron under the orders of Rear Admiral John MacBride, briefly flying his flag. Whilst serving off Dunkirk he was often sent ashore to liaise with the Duke of York who was leading a British army engaged in the Flanders Campaign, and he also landed with some fifty men to transport arms into Nieuport when that town was besieged by a French army, even joining an attack upon the French positions. However, Rogers had long hoped to join Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis’ planned expedition to the Leeward Islands, and when that officer requested his services, a dispute arose with MacBride who did not wish to lose such a brilliant officer. After Jervis allegedly threatened to resign if he could not choose his own officers, it was agreed to release Rogers and the Quebec to the West Indies.
As a result, the Quebec was very active during the Leeward Islands campaign (beginning on 10 January 1794), taking nine prizes before the fleet left Barbados. Rogers was appointed commodore in command of a detached squadron of smaller vessels for the reduction of Martinique – an appointment that caused much displeasure to more senior officers on the station. He later performed sterling service ashore in command of seven hundred seamen who constructed and operated an artillery battery, but one of his most difficult tasks was in calming the anger of his men after the erratic Captain Robert Faulknor in a rage inadvertently killed one of their number.
A week after the surrender of Martinique on 22 March 1794, Rogers joined the expedition to take St. Lucia, receiving aboard his frigate one of the brigade commanders of the invasion force, Prince Edward (the future Duke of Kent and the father of Queen Victoria). With part of the French garrison bolting, the conquest of the island was achieved without the loss of a single man to enemy fire. Rogers was then charged with the command of a small squadron which took the Islands of the Saintes in a night attack on 10 April, and after rejoining Jervis off Guadeloupe he led a force of seamen ashore which assisted in the easy conquest of that island.
The ever-active Rogers was next placed in command of a squadron of four 44-gun vessels, five frigates, three sloops and a number of small vessels, intended to land a force of a thousand troops to capture the Dutch possession of Cayenne on the South American mainland. Again, there was some unhappiness at such a significant post being offered to a junior officer, but in the event a serious outbreak of yellow fever prior to the expedition’s departure reduced the number of men available and it had to be abandoned. This disease also affected Rogers personally; within one week in May 1794 yellow fever had claimed the life of his younger brother James, who was the Quebec’s first lieutenant, and that of his nephew (another Josias), also serving aboard.
Retaining his broad pennant, Rogers was despatched to North American waters to take command of five frigates and a sloop to counter French raids on British shipping and to protect Bermuda. During the voyage north he nearly lost his life when he was struck by a falling block that rendered him senseless. When the Quebec reached her station, she was unable to achieve anything of note as only one of the expected frigates, the Alarm 32, Captain James Carpenter, was able to join the Quebec. Further delays occurred in attempting to reach Halifax in the face of adverse winds, and almost immediately Rogers was recalled to the Leeward Islands to help counter the French resurgence on that station.
Rejoining the fleet before the end of October, the Quebec cruised off Guadeloupe, which had been retaken by the French, but by now Rogers was sick with yellow fever and he received permission from the new commander-in-chief, Vice-Admiral Benjamin Caldwell, to return home. Before the Quebec could leave and while he was helping combat a slave uprising on the island of Grenada, the 40-year-old Rogers succumbed to the fever on 24 April 1795. He was buried in St. George’s Churchyard on the island.
In 1786 Captain Rogers had married Mary Goodhew at Deptford. They had three daughters; the two who survived to adulthood both had significant naval connections. Mary the elder became the mother of Captain Cowper Coles, a famous Victorian officer and naval architect, who lost his life when his experimental ship, the Captain, capsized. The second daughter, Augusta, married Captain Edmund Lyons, later Vice-Admiral Lord Lyons, who was second-in-command of the British fleet in the Black Sea during the Crimean War.
Both Admiral Sir John Jervis and Captain Sir Andrew Snape Hamond were influential in advancing Josias Rogers’ career, and they both displayed great trust in his abilities. He was a brave, resolute and creative officer who was renowned for his bold yet well-planned actions, and for his excellent seamanship. Described as a ‘calm, mild and unimpassioned’ man who disliked but accepted the ubiquitous swearing of sailors, he was beloved by his men. His death early in the French Revolutionary War was a significant loss to the Royal Navy, as one of its most promising officers.