JohnMarnerGlover


John Marner alias Rogers, glover of Farnham, died 1580

page being prepared by Peter Tipton

 

Working out the family tree of the Rogers alias Marner family is key to understanding the family interrelationships of the potters working in Farnborough and Cove in the last quarter of the 17th century. John Rogers alias Marner, the potter who died in Farnborough in 1648, probably in his 80s, was related to many of the other main potter families. It is therefore important to work our who was his father. Was his father the glover whose will was proved in 1580? The answer is POSSIBLY, but not very likely since, although the elder son of John the glover was named John, and was living in 1580, John Rogers the potter of Farnborough had a brother named Henry. There is no Henry named in the will of John the glover.

 

The will of John Marner alias Rogers, glover of Farnham is the only will, proved before 1600, found so far, of the many men in and around Farnham named John Rogers alias Marner or John Marner alias Rogers.

 

The first fact obvious from the will of John Marner alias Rogers, glover of Farnham is that he had a brother with exactly the same name. Perhaps they were half-brothers with the same mother but different fathers. The second fact to emerge from the will is that John the Glover names his son John as the main beneficiary after the death of his wife Joan. Perhaps this John was later to become John the potter of Farnborough. The third fact which derives from this will is that John the glover was the father of Constance Marner, the first wife of Thomas Reynolds, the Cove potter who died 1636. Constance was about 5 years old when her father died.

 

There is a John Rogers alias Marner listed in the Lay Subsidy for Wrecclesham in 1546, a century before John Rogers the potter died in Farnborough. In the records in the intervening 100 years the alias is sometimes one way round, and sometimes the other. Sometimes the surname is listed as plain Rogers, sometimes just Marner. Investigating the family requires the researcher to look at all the possible variations.

 

The IGI for Farnham lists the baptisms of the following males with Christian name John and surname either Marner or Rogers:

 

None of these is likely to be the baptisms of John Marner, the glover, since he had five children at his death in 1580. However one of these baptisms may have been of his son John and another may have been the the son of his brother John. All these Johns may have ended up with the surname Rogers alias Marner or just be known as plain John Rogers or John Marner. Since four boys were baptised John Marner within eight years, and we only know of two possible fathers called John Marner, it is possible that some of these babies died as infants.

 

It is vital to try to unravel these families since one of the Johns whose births are listed above is likely to be John Rogers alias Marner, potter of Farnborough, who ended up connected by marriage to most of the other key potters who produced Border Ware.

 

Furthermore there are a number of occurrences in the Loseley Papers of the name John Rogers, as under-keepers of the Bishop of Winchester's parks in Farnham. These John Rogers may have had control of the special white pottery clay in Claypits Wood in Farnham Great Park. One of these underkeepers could have been the brother of John the glover. A family connection between the potters and those who controlled the clay would be most interesting.

 

Reconstructing the Rogers Family

 

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John Marner alias Rogers' will