John Rogers, a prominent lawyer and patriot, lived in Upper Marlboro during the 1760s and 1770s. He represented Prince George’s County at the Maryland Conventions of 1774 and 1775, and on July 25, 1775, signed the Association of the Freemen of Maryland. On December 9, 1775, the Maryland Convention elected him as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was one of only three Maryland delegates who voted on July 2, 1776, to declare America’s independence and on July 4, 1776, to approve the Declaration of Independence. On July 4, 1776, the Maryland Convention in Annapolis elected Charles Carroll of Carrollton to replace Rogers, who was ill. Because the Declaration was not signed until August 2, 1776, Carroll’s name, rather than John Rogers’s, appears on that document. Rogers was the only delegate to the Continental Congress who voted for the Declaration of Independence but did not have the opportunity to sign it. He served as Chancellor of Maryland from 1778 to 1789 and in 1788 was elected a U.S. Presidential Elector from Maryland, receiving more votes than any other candidate in the state.