Richard Saltonstall Rogers

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.

Early life Rogers was born on January 13, 1790, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a son of Abigail ( Dodge) Rogers and Nathaniel Rogers. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he graduated in the year 1800.

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. 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. It has been suggested that Roger Chillingworth, a character in Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, was based on Rogers.

Personal life On May 14, 1822, Rogers married Sarah Crowninshield Rogers, daughter of U.S. Representative Jacob Crowninshield and Sally ( Gardner) Crowninshield. Richard Denison Rogers (b. 1824), who married Martha Endicott Peabody in 1851. he married Josephine Frances Lord. Elizabeth Pickman Rogers (b. 1853), who married Alfred John Pound, an English barrister.

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

Descendants Through his daughter Elizabeth, he was the grandfather of Sir Dudley Pound, a senior British Admiral during World War II.