Rogers, Benjamin (1614–1698)

English organist and composer. He held organist's posts at Windsor, Dublin, and Oxford, and wrote the Hymnus Eucharisticus, which is still sung at the top of the tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, at 5 a.m. on 1 May each year.

He learnt music from his father, Peter Rogers, a lay-clerk at St George's Chapel, Windsor, and from the organist, Nathaniel Giles. He became himself a lay-clerk, but in 1639 went to Dublin as organist of Christ Church Cathedral. He returned to Windsor in 1641, but in 1644 the choir was disbanded and he taught music privately. He received a music degree from Cambridge University in 1658, and a PhD from Oxford in 1669, where he had become organist and choirmaster at Magdalen College in 1664. He was dismissed for musical and other irregularities in 1685, but was given a pension.

Works Church and secular music services and anthems, Hymnus Eucharisticus; instrumental pieces; organ works.