SCHS / Photo of the Week: Rogers Mansion, Southampton, formerly Capt. Albert Rogers’ Homestead

Photo of the Week, July 24, 2026

FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY & ARCHIVE

“How shall we know it is us without our past?”
– John Steinbeck

The Rogers Mansion, formerly Whaling Captain Albert Rogers’ Homestead, Southampton.
(Image from the Postcard Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society’s Library & Archive).

The Rogers Mansion in Southampton occupies the lot awarded to William Rogers (ca. 1606–1667), an early European settler. William was born in England around 1606 and immigrated to Connecticut in 1640, relocating to Southampton by 1644. He later moved west to Huntington, leaving his Southampton property to his son Obadiah. The house remained in the Rogers family for several generations.

The main Greek Revival-style structure standing today incorporates elements of an earlier redesign in about 1843 by Captain Albert Rogers (1807–1854), a direct descendant of William Rogers. The house was later expanded by owners John Nugent (1858–1944) and Samuel L. Parrish (1849–1932). Parrish hired renowned architect Grosvenor Atterbury (1869–1956) to redesign the property, a project that involved moving the house back a hundred feet from Main Street.

Serving as the headquarters and exhibition space of the Southampton History Museum since 1943, the site features other historic structures in addition to the Rogers Mansion. For more information about the site, click here. Continue reading below for some exciting genetic genealogy news regarding the Rogers family!

by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian

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Rogers Coat of Arms. From the Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library & Archive.

Y-DNA Project Unlocks Roots of the Rogers Family of Southampton and Huntington

Are you a descendant of the Rogers family? Breakthrough Y-DNA testing has bridged a centuries’ old gap between Suffolk County history and English heritage. Genetic analysis reveals that descendants of seventeenth-century English emigrant William Rogers of Suffolk County (bapt. c. 1612), such as Capt. Albert Rogers (1807-1854), share Haplogroup I-BY157942, a genetic signature that ties the family to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. William’s sons, Obadiah Rogers (1633-1692) of Southampton, Jonathan Rogers (1636-1709) of Huntington, and Noah Rogers (1646-1725) of Branford, Connecticut (and their descendants), all stem from the same paternal lineage.

Learn more about this Rogers lineage by joining the Rogers/Rodgers Y-DNA effort at FamilyTreeDNA, and by contacting Ralph Rogers at ralphrogersjr@aol.com

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