APPENDIXES
I: Other Virginians by the Name of William Rogers
In order to feel absolutely certain that the William Rogers of Yorktown was the "poor potter" so often mentioned by Governor Gooch, a check was made through the records of all 17th-and 18th-century Virginians named William Rogers to see if any others might possibly have been associated with the Yorktown pottery.
The earliest William Rogers found was listed as one of a group of 60 persons transported and assigned to Richard Cooke in Henrico County.[233] In 1639 a "Mr. William Rogers" was viewer of the tobacco crop in Upper Norfolk.[234] In 1718 a William Rogers died in Richmond County.[235] It is quite evident that none of these was the "poor potter."
In 1704 a William Rogers owned 200 acres in Accomack County on the Eastern Shore,[236] and in 1731 a will of William Rogers was recorded there.[237]
In Surry County several men of this name are noted.
One of them was bound as an apprentice in 1681;[238] this William Rogers was probably the same man who was listed in 1687 in the Surry militia "for Foot."[239] In 1702 a William Rogers took up some newly opened land "on the South side of Blackwater," which was measured by the surveyor for Charles City County (only meaning, perhaps, that Surry did not have its own surveyor).[240] In 1704 a William Roger (sic) owned 450 acres in Surry.[241] Two years later William Rogers, Jr., had 220 acres surveyed on the "S. side of Blackwater" in Surry County.[242] Meanwhile a William Rogers had recorded a will in Surry in 1701, and another (presumably William Rogers, Jr.) did so in 1727.[243]
A William Rogers was listed in Lancaster in 1694 as the husband of Elizabeth Skipworth,[244] and he appears to have been tithable in the Christ Church parish in 1714.[245] Wills are recorded under the name in Lancaster County in 1728 and 1768.[64]
None of these records dispute the strong evidence discovered at Yorktown concerning the identity of the "poor potter."