Richard Saltonstall Rogers

Richard Saltonstall Rogers
Richard Saltonstall Rogers
Born	January 13, 1790; Salem, Massachusetts
Died	June 11, 1873 (aged 83); Salem, Massachusetts
Resting place	Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Education	Phillips Exeter Academy
Political party	Whig
Opponent(s)	Nathaniel Hawthorne

Richard Saltonstall Rogers (January 13, 1790 – June 11, 1873) was an early American shipping merchant and was possibly the inspiration for a character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

Life and work

Early life and career in business

Rogers was born on January 13, 1790, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he graduated in the year 1800. Early as a young man, he began to deal in business. Using the influence of his oldest brother, Nathaniel Leverett Rogers, who married the daughter of a prominent businessman in Salem, he acquired large amounts of cargo to be shipped to Russia. He spent several years in Russia, and dealt with the management of the affairs of his sister-in-law's family. In 1816, he served as the supercargo of the ship Friendship, owned by Waite and Pierce, his sister-in-law's father's company. He traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, and Kolkata, India, along with several destinations. Following his time on the Friendship, he embarked on one journey upon the Tartar. He then partnered with Nathaniel Rogers and his second oldest brother, John Wittingham Rogers, to form the Rogers Brothers company. Their company employed the ships the Tybee, Clay, Grotius, Augustus, Quill, and Charles Daggett. The brothers pioneered the Zanzibar and New Holland trades, and had their ships collectively travel over 120 times around Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope. Later in life, he served as supercargo on the ship the Ianthe, and worked with his brother-in-law, W.D. Pickman.[1]

Political career

Rogers was, at certain points of his life, a member of the Common Council of Salem and the Legislature. He however disliked the methods of his colleagues. He was a Whig, and an enemy of the Democratic-Republican, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was involved with Hawthorne's removal from the Boston Custom House.[2][3] Hawthorne, in a letter to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, promised to "immolate" Rogers, along with several other political opponents, if he were successfully removed from his office.[4] It has been suggested that Roger Chillingworth, a character in Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, was based on Rogers.[5][6]

Marriage and family

On May 14, 1822, Rogers married Sarah Crowninshield Rogers, daughter of U. S. Congressman Jacob Crowninshield. They had five sons and a daughter: William Crowninshield, Richard Denison, Jacob Crowninshield, George, Arthur Saltonstall, and Sarah. After her death in 1835, he married Elizabeth Leavitt Pickman Rogers, daughter of Massachusetts State Senator Dudley Leavitt Pickman, on March 17, 1847, with whom he had Dudley Pickering, George Willoughby, and Elizabeth Pickman Pound.[1] He was the grandfather of Sir Dudley Pound, a senior British Admiral during World War II.[7]

Death

Richard Rogers died on June 11, 1873, in Salem, at the age of 83. He is buried at Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem.

gollark: oh dear.

gollark: That seems like a weird mix of responsibilities.

gollark: I'm not actually in university. I'm doing A-levels next year. Which still makes me *technically* a "student".

gollark: Technically, nothing now? It's my holidays.

gollark: I don't actually work for money. I'm a student.

References

Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1888). History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. J.W. Lewis.
Gale, Robert L. (1991-01-01). A Nathaniel Hawthorne Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313268168.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel; Simpson, Claude Mitchell (1972). The American notebooks. Ohio State University Press.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (2017). The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings (Second International Student Edition). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393623529.
Smith, Julian. Hawthorne and a Salem Enemy.
Bloom, Harold; Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities Harold (2014-05-14). Edgar Allan Poe's the Tell-tale Heart and Other Stories. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438119229.
Farrell, Brian P. "Pound, Sir (Alfred) Dudley Pickman Rogers". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35587. Retrieved 8 March 2020.

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[:1-1] Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1888). History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. J.W. Lewis.

[2] Gale, Robert L. (1991-01-01). A Nathaniel Hawthorne Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313268168.

[3] Hawthorne, Nathaniel; Simpson, Claude Mitchell (1972). The American notebooks. Ohio State University Press.

[4] Hawthorne, Nathaniel (2017). The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings (Second International Student Edition). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393623529.

[5] Smith, Julian. Hawthorne and a Salem Enemy.

[6] Bloom, Harold; Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities Harold (2014-05-14). Edgar Allan Poe's the Tell-tale Heart and Other Stories. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438119229.

[7] Farrell, Brian P. "Pound, Sir (Alfred) Dudley Pickman Rogers". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35587. Retrieved 8 March 2020.