THE PETITION OF ELIEZER ROGERS

I'm not certain if this is my direct ancestor Eleazer Rogers with an alternate
spelling of his last name or if it's another descendant of Thomas "The Pilgrim"
Rogers who was a Mayflower passenger. Either way, he's kin. I winced the first
time I read his petition:

Eliezer Rogers' Petition 1698.

"To the Honoble" William Stoughton Esqr Lieutenant Governour and to the Council
and Representatives in General Court Assembled, The humble petition, of Eliezer Rogers
of plymouth

Sheweth
That your Petitioner being a Soldier under the Command of Captain Thomas Dymock did
on the ninth day of September last (1697) receive Several Wounds in an Engagemt with the ffrench and Indians att Winagauts. particularly he was shott through the Thigh, and
through the right side of his head which put out his Eye, and has made him in a great
measure incapable of his Employment

Yor Petitioner therefore humbly prays that he may have his Cure perfected att the publick Charge, and may have Such further Stipend and pension as to this Honoble Court shall
Seem reasonable, and yor petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray &c
Eleazer rogers

May ult. 1698 Read in the House of Representatives
and Committed.

June 7'h In Answer to this petition
Ordered, That the petitioner shall be allowed and paid out of ye publick Treasury the Sum
of Twenty pounds in full compensation for smart money, and for the loss and damages abovementioned, by him sustained

Sent up for Concurrance.
June 8th 1698. In Council.
Read and Resolved a Concurrance
Isc Addington Secry./ "

Baxter, James Phinney, ed .Documentary History of the State of Maine Vol 5 Containing the Baxter Manuscripts Maine Historical Society Portland 1897 (p512)

It's possible it is Eleazer. I've found records of him and his wife Ruhamah Willis Rogers
selling land to two different doctors which might be to help pay for medical treatment made necessary by the wounds. But I've also seen him referred to as a seaman by trade in the
early 1700s.

What fascinates me is the fact that Eliezer or Eleazer was able to survive such a severe
wound in a time when medicine was far from the exact science it is today.

They were amazingly resilient people in those days!