Rogers, Esther, 1797 - 1893

Born in Charlestown, RI, Esther Rogers was the daughter of Ammon or Nammon Rogers, a Narragansett Indian, and an unidentified Indian mother.  She married John Uncas, Jr., a Mohegan Indian, sometime prior to April 1824.  By May of 1827 a tribal census indicated that the couple and their four children resided in a house on the Mohegan Reservation.  By February of 1830 the family had grown with the addition of a fifth child.  The marriage to John Uncas, Jr. ended sometime before the spring of 1837 when records indicate Esther married again, this time to Prince Beaumont an African American and former slave.  The two set up house in Enfield, Connecticut and within several years had their first child, Alvina, followed five years later by a second daughter, Mary.  Esther was granted a divorce from Prince in 1846 and in 1850 she and her two daughters were listed as living in Norwich.  Ten years later Esther had moved again living in Middletown with her teenage daughters.  Both the 1860 and 1870 federal census shows Esther Beaumont, occupation basketmaker, as residing in Durham CT.  She lived in Durham on Indian Lane until her death in the winter of 1893.  (Report of Commission on Narragansett Indians, 1881; Yale Indian Papers Project 1830.00.00.00; Black Roots, p.23;  Barbour Collection Marriage Record,  Federal Census, Enfield, CT 1840, New London County Court Records by subject, Divorces, 1846;  Federal Census, Norwich, CT 1850; Federal Census, Middletown, CT 1860; Federal Census, Durham, CT 1870)