JAMES BLYTHE ROGERS. 



1802-1852. 



SCIENCE has need of all manner of men among its votaries. 

 He whose career will be traced in this memoir devoted to its 

 service a warm sympathy, an inspiring utterance, a high de- 

 gree of constructive faculty, and a conscientiousness which 

 caused him ever to give his best efforts to the duty before 

 him. 



James Blythe Rogers was born in Philadelphia, Feb. n, 

 1802, being the first child of Hannah (Blythe) and Patrick 

 Kerr Rogers. His grandfather, Robert Rogers, was one of 

 the gentry of County Tyrone, Ireland. At the age of twenty- 

 one he married Sarah Kerr, daughter of a gentleman living 

 near, whose family, like his own, were adherents of the Pres- 

 byterian Church. Mr. Rogers was owner of the Edergole or 

 Knockbrack estate, lying between Omagh and Fintano, forty 

 miles from Londonderry, and held on lease a piece of land ad- 

 joining it. Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger, whose excellent 

 memoir on The Brothers Rogers * is the chief available source 

 of information concerning this family, mentions as additional 

 evidence of his social standing that he inherited the large cen- 

 tral pew in the neighbouring Presbyterian Church, which he 

 rebuilt and furnished anew when the church was reconstructed. 

 Robert Rogers was twice married ; his first wife bore him 

 twelve children, and the second five. Patrick Kerr Rogers 

 was his eldest child. "The rudiments of Patrick's education," 

 says Dr. Ruschenberger, " were received in a schoolhouse 

 built upon the estate. It is described as having clay walls, a 

 thatched roof, clay seats covered with bits of carpet, and being 

 warmed by a turf fire. The teacher was a lame rustic boy, 

 whom Patrick's aunt, Margaret Rogers, a lady of notable in- 



* Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. xxiii, pp. 104-146. 



