Small image of a man handing a book to a women across a counter.

At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Ebenezer Rogers

Author: Ebenezer Rogers (1836–1915)

Biography: Ebenezer Rogers was born in 1836 in Dublin, the son of William Cooke Rogers and Eliza Burrowes. In his teens, he joined the army and served with the 3rd West Indian Regiment rising to captain by 1866. While with the 3rd, he served in expeditions to Gambia (1864) and Honduras (1867). He recounted his experiences in the book Campaigning in Western Africa and the Ashantee Invasion (1874). By the time it was published, he had joined the Pensioners as a staff officer. In 1865, he married Grace Charlotte van Homrigh and the couple had three children. Rogers only wrote a single novel, A Modern Sphinx (1881), reprinted under the title "Madeline's Mystery" as edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. The novel features a character named Dr. Fitzjames based on the real-life Dr. James Barry (died 1865), an army surgeon revealed to be a woman at her death. In fact, in a letter to The Lancet, Rogers recounts once sharing a ship cabin with Barry while never suspecting the truth. Rogers also wrote two works on machine gun tactics. After his wife died, he subsequently married Harriett Edmonston but the marriage ended in separation if not divorce. He died in 1915 in Wandsworth.

Author Tags:

References: British Census (1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911); The Lancet (19 October 1895)

Fiction Titles:

  1. A Modern Sphinx: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: John Maxwell, 1881.