1355) John Rogers

John Rogers (c. 1505 - 1555). English clergyman and Bible translator. First English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.

"Thus John Rogers, the martyr, had red hair, as appears from a painting of him now in Harvard College; and accordingly red or light hair and sandy whiskers will be found to prevail in his descendants in this country to the present day. So powerful was his constitution, that it stamped its own impress upon the great majority of his descendants. Compare the number of Rogerses who have more or less admixture of the red in the colour of their hair, with the community as a whole, and the force of this hereditary fact will be too apparent to be controverted."*

Works on Phrenology, Physiology, and Kindred Subjects by Orson Squire Fowler, 1873.

*At present we haven't ascertained if the above painting is the same as that referenced in the quote. Obviously in the above painting the hair looks somewhat dark, so we would guess that the reference is to another work.