Charles Rogers

According to Pride and Negligence, Rogers was a "Scotsman and minister of the Church of Scotland, who [by 1874) had settled in England and had there brought out a long series of works on Scottish history, literature, and genealogy." (Pride and Negligence, pp. 56-57).

According to Archives in London and the M25 area:

"Charles Rogers (1825-1890) Scottish author. Born in Denino, Fife, 18 April 1825, the only son of James Rogers (1767-1849), the local minister, and his wife Jane Haldane. He was educated at Denino parish school, and the University of St. Andrews, matriculating in 1839. Licensed by the presbytery of St Andrews in June 1846, he was employed in the capacity of assistant successively at Western Anstruther, Kinglassie, Abbotshall, Dunfermline, Ballingry, and Carnoustie. Subsequently he opened a preaching station at the Bridge of Allan, and from January 1855 until 11 Aug. 1863 was chaplain of the garrison at Stirling Castle. In 1855 he inaugurated at Stirling a short-lived Scottish Literary Institute. In 1862 he opened the British Christian Institute, for the dissemination of religious tracts, especially to soldiers and sailors, and in connection with it he issued a weekly paper, called `The Workman's Friend,' and afterwards monthly serials, `The Briton' and `The Recorder;' but the scheme collapsed in 1863. In 1863 he founded and edited a newspaper, `The Stirling Gazette,' but its career was brief. These schemes involved Rogers in much contention and litigation, and he imagined himself the victim of misrepresentation and persecution. To escape his calumniators he resigned his chaplaincy in 1863, went to England, and thenceforth devoted himself to literary work.

Rogers's earliest literary efforts in London were journalistic, but his chief interest was Scottish history, literature, and genealogy. He also had a passion for founding literary societies. In November 1865 he originated in London a short-lived Naval and Military Tract Society, as a successor to his British Christian Institute, and in connection with it he edited a quarterly periodical called `The British Bulwark.' When that society's existence terminated, he set up `The London Book and Tract Depository,' which he carried on until 1874. The most successful of all his foundations - the Grampian Club, was inaugurated in London on 2 Nov. 1868, and he was secretary and chief editor until his death. Its purpose was to issue works illustrative of Scottish literature, history, and antiquities. He also claimed to be the founder of the Royal Historical Society, which was established in London on 23 Nov 1868, for the conduct of historical, biographical, and ethnological investigations. He was secretary and historiographer to this Society until 1880, when he was openly charged with working it for his own pecuniary benefit. He defended himself in a pamphlet, `Parting Words to the Members,' 1881, and reviewed his past life in `The Serpent's Track: a Narrative of twenty-two years' Persecution' (1880). He edited eight volumes of the Historical Society's `Transactions,' in which he wrote much himself.

He was awarded a the degree of LL.D from Columbia College, New York, in 1854; and D.D. by the University of St Andrews in 1881. He was a member, fellow, or correspondent of numerous learned societies, British, foreign, and colonial, and an associate of the Imperial Archæological Society of Russia. He died in Edinburgh on 18 Sept. 1890, at the aged 65."

Rogers married, on 14 Dec. 1854, Isabella Bain (1825-1880), the eldest daughter of John Bain (b. ca. 1800, d. bef. 1851) of St. Andrews.1

• 1The AIM25 source erroneously gives Rev. Rogers wife's name as Jane, which is the name of Isabella's mother and one of her sisters. Mr. John Henderson has kindly pointed out this error in my original source to me, and has also informed me, that the reverend used the surname Roger rather than Rogers until ca. 1854.