Tempest Rogers

Tempest Rogers (1672 or 1675–1704) was a pirate trader active in the Caribbean and off Madagascar. He is best known for his association with William Kidd.

History

Tempest Rogers was born in 1672 or 1675, and by 1693 had married Johanna Little in London. Three years later he was master of the Fidelia, sailing to the American colonies. He was suspected of sailing from Rhode Island to St. Mary's on Madagascar, which had long been a known pirate trading post. He may have sailed alongside another Rhode Island pirate, Thomas Wake, who was also bound for Madagascar and the Indian Ocean to eventually sail with Henry Every. While there William Kidd called on the port to switch his leaky Adventure Galley for his newly captured Quedagh Merchant, renamed to Adventure Prize. Davis sailed with Kidd rather than remain on Madagascar; once they returned to New York, he was arrested with the rest of Kidd's crew and sent to London for trial. Acquitted, Davis returned to piracy by 1702. Bellomont thought Symes, a known criminal, may have murdered Rogers and stolen the Fidelia. Rogers died sometime on or before 1704, when his widow Johanna married Richard Oglethorpe, Oglethorpe wrote a letter to Secretary of State Charles Hedges (“An account of persons trading with pirates”) in which he repeated the accusations that Rogers had dealt with Kidd, naming others who he claimed had bought Kidd's goods from Rogers, and claiming Rogers had bought Dutch citizenship in order to trade with the French and Spanish as a neutral party, and that he had "since dyed amongst ye French." A few months later, Oglethorpe was granted administration of Rogers’ estate in South Carolina.