Researching John Rogers

He was educated at Rockwell College and Trinity College, Dublin.

The Labour Party demanded the right to choose the Attorney General in the coalition government of 1984. At the time Mary Robinson was expected to be chosen; instead the nomination went to John Rogers, who had not yet been appointed a senior counsel (SC). Traditionally a new Attorney General would have practised as a senior counsel for a number of years prior to his or her appointment. Rogers was appointed an SC on the day he was made Attorney General of Ireland. He has worked as a senior counsel in the Law Library, Dublin, from 1987 to date. Rogers was banned from driving, for 2 years, in 1998 after being arrested for drink driving. He was more than twice over the legal limit.

He became famous for his small genre sculptures, popularly termed "Rogers Groups", which were mass-produced in cast plaster. A total of 80,000 copies of almost 80 Rogers Groups were sold across the United States and abroad.

At the height of their popularity, Rogers' figurines graced the parlors of homes in the United States and were found as far away as Chile and Australia. The English novelist Charles Reade furnished his home with all the Rogers figurines available to him, and in the Dakota Territory, Lt. Col. George Custer and his wife had one. Often selling for $15 apiece, the figurines were affordable to the middle class.

Instead of working in bronze and marble, he sculpted in more affordable plaster, painted the color of putty to hide dust. Rogers was inspired by popular novels, poems and prints as well as the scenes he saw around him.

Rogers was born to Irish immigrant parents in Philadelphia on May 27, 1844. He earned his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 1865. Rogers was elected the city comptroller in 1880. As a member of the City Troop/(First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry), he participated in the quelling of the Pittsburgh riots during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Rogers was later appointed Judge Advocate General of the Philadelphia National Guard, with the rank of colonel.

A prominent attorney and politician in Philadelphia, Rogers came to the baseball business when former player and sporting goods magnate Al Reach consulted with him on a patent for a baseball. Rogers and Reach later teamed up to acquire the remnants of the Worcester Worcesters in 1883, winning the rights to the franchise via drawing of lots. Reach and Rogers relocated the franchise to Philadelphia, where they became known as the Quakers (they would later become the Phillies), entering the team as an expansion franchise in the National League in 1883. During these early days, Rogers was involved in creating baseball's reserve clause, which would remain in effect until the era of free agency. In 1899, Reach sold his interest to Rogers due to repeated disagreements about the direction of the club.

Reach and Rogers sold the Phillies to a group led by James Potter in February 1903, but retained the rights to the team's stadium, National League Park (which eventually became Baker Bowl). On August 8, a balcony collapsed at the park, killing 12 people and injuring hundreds more. Rogers was nearly ruined by the resulting avalanche of lawsuits, and was forced to sell the stadium to Potter as well. Eventually, both Rogers and Reach were absolved of blame and financial responsibility for the accident by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rogers died of heart failure in Denver, Colorado on March 13, 1910.

He moved from Burscough to Wigan Athletic, then competing in the Northern Premier League, in 1972. In four years with the club he scored 77 goals in 174 league appearances and helped them to win the league title; his performances earned him a move to Port Vale in October 1976, where he turned semi-professional. He refused to become a full-time professional, and instead was sold on to Altrincham in July 1977. He maintained an average goal ratio of a goal every two games in his time at Moss Lane, helping the club to two Alliance Premier League titles and triumph in the Cheshire Senior Cup, FA Trophy and Conference League Cup competitions. He had a brief spell back in the Football League with Wigan Athletic in 1982–83, before he saw out his career at Altrincham, Barrow, and Runcorn.

He also won five caps as an England semi-pro international.

Born in Leeds to Norfolk Island chaplain Thomas George Rogers and his wife Sarah née Smith, he arrived in Australia around 1849 but returned to England in 1852. In 1862 he moved to Australia for good and began teaching in Ballarat; in 1870 he moved to Melbourne and ran a grammar school in Carlton from around 1873. He married twice: firstly to Kate Shanahan, with whom he had two sons, and secondly, in 1881, to Letitia Catherine Maloney, with whom he had three children. In the late 1870s he was headmaster of Melbourne Hebrew School, after which he headed a school in St Kilda before he was appointed inspector of schools in Sydney in 1883. He visited England again in 1887. In 1894 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for South Yarra, serving until 1897. Rogers died in Malvern in 1908.

Rogers was the eldest son of the John Warrington Rogers, of London, entered as a student to the Middle Temple in June 1848, and was called to the bar in November 1846. He emigrated to Tasmania, and was admitted to practise there in August 1865. Rogers was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly for Launceston on 8 September 1856 and was Solicitor-General in the first Ministry formed under responsible government, he resigned on 16 November 1857. In the latter year he removed to Victoria, where he was admitted to the bar in March.

In 1858 Rogers was appointed a judge of the County Court of Victoria at Ballaarat and Creswick as well as Chairman of the Court of General Sessions and a judge of the Courts of Mines. In 1878 the Berry government sacked Warrington, along will all other judges of County Courts, Courts of Mines, Chairmen of Courts of General Sessions, Police Magistrates and a large number of public servants, an event referred to as "Black Wednesday". Rogers was temporarily reappointed on 29 January 1878, but to different counties, those previously held by Charles Skinner. His reappointment was challenged in the Supreme Court on the basis that the judges had not validly been removed. The Supreme Court held that County Court judges held office at pleasure and the Governor in council could remove them without cause. The government refused to give County Court judges security of tenure and Rogers resigned from 29 June 1878, on a pension. Rogers returned to the bar and was appointed a Queen's Counsel on 2 July 1878.

Rogers, was awarded a Master of Arts by University of Melbourne, was appointed a Law Lecturer at that University in 1878. He was President of the Royal Commission on Education appointed by the O'Loghlen Government.

Rogers died on 10 February 1906 in Brentford, Middlesex, and his will was proved on 29 March in London.

His work has often focused on households as a bridge to understanding the structure of complex societies and the interrelatedness of settlement, subsistence and political structures on a macroscopic scale. He has also done significant research on interpreting the processes of culture contact and colonization at the edges of empires by comparing data from a variety of areas, including the Great Plains, Central Mexico, the Caribbean, and Inner Asia.

His recent work explores the human impact on the environment as evidenced by archaeology. Through National Science Foundation grants, Dr. Rogers and collaborators at George Mason University are using agent-based simulations to model the rise and fall of Inner Asian empires. Eventually, the team will explore long-term human impacts on the environment, especially the sustainability and resilience of different social systems.

Rogers was the son of Gideon and Lucy (Ackley) Rogers, and was born in Lyme, Connecticut, April 15, 1796. He graduated from Yale College in 1815. He was a physician and a farmer. He resided in Lyme until 1837, when he removed to Rome, Ohio, which was thereafter the place of his residence. He was to some extent in public life, having been several times a member of each house of the Legislature of Connecticut, and also, in 1840, representative in the Legislature of Ohio.

Rogers married Matilda Lord from Lyme, Connecticut on February 10, 1822, and had two daughters Charlotte Augusta Swan and Helen Stone (Lord). He also had two half brothers, Deacon Chester Andrews and Reverend Wells Andrews.

He died in Rome, Ashtabula County, Ohio on December 28, 1860, aged 64.