Fourth subject in A Noble Company, Volume 5 - William Rogers

William Rogers (1751-1824), born at Newport, Rhode Island, had the distinction of being (at the age of 14) the first student enrolled at the new Rhode Island College (later Brown University) in Providence, where he graduated in 1769. He was not savingly converted, however, until the following year, when “the Saviour revealed his pardoning love to him, after which he united with the Second Baptist church of Newport.” In May 1772 he was ordained pastor of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. During the Revolutionary War he served for years as a chaplain with the Pennsylvania troops and during the postwar years became professor of oratory and belles-lettres at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. “His popularity in Philadelphia and throughout the country was remarkable, and it was limited to men of no special opinions, religious or political.”