25 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mentions as additional evidence of his social standing that he in- 

 herited the large central pew in the neighboring 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 school- 

 house 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 intelli- 

 gence, had trained for the office. It is conjectured that he ac- 

 quired his classical learning from a private tutor at the house 

 of a kinsman/' The father of Sarah Kerr evidently did not believe 

 in the law of primogeniture, for he had exacted, as a condition 

 of his daughter's marriage to Robert Rogers, a settlement of all 

 the latter's lands upon the children of this union, share and share 

 alike. Accordingly, Patrick, although the eldest child, could ex- 

 pect only one twelfth of his father's landed estate, and must 

 prepare himself for some other occupation than that of a land- 

 lord. " Entertaining opinions not rigidly orthodox, he was un- 

 willing to enter the clerical profession, though he had the example 

 of two uncles who were clergymen." All things considered, a 

 commercial career seemed best, and he therefore entered a count- 

 ing house in Dublin. When the Irish rebellion broke out, in the 

 spring of 1798, he contributed to Dublin newspapers certain 

 articles inimical to the Government, on account of which he was 

 obliged to leave the country. At that period ships plied directly 

 between Ireland and Philadelphia, and on one of these he em- 

 barked, landing at his destination in August, after a passage of 

 eighty-four days. 



In the following May Mr. Rogers obtained an appointment as 

 a tutor in the University of Pennsylvania, and soon afterward 

 began to study medicine under the famous Dr. Benjamin S. Barton. 

 Mr. Rogers was married January 2, 1801, his wife being the young- 

 est of the three orphan daughters of a Scotch father and an Eng- 

 lish mother. Their father, James Blythe, had been a stationer 

 and newspaper publisher in Londonderry, whither he had gone 

 from Glasgow. After the death of both parents the three sisters 

 had come to America, where they were received by a cousin, Mrs. 

 Thomas Moore. At the time of his marriage Mr. Rogers was 

 described as " a tall, erect man, of grave deportment, having dark 

 hair well sprinkled with gray, and soft, sleepy eyes. He played 

 the violin and sang well, but never in company or in the presence 

 of strangers, because such performance or display seemed to him 

 inconsistent with the dignity of a gentleman." 



