Roger Clapp

Roger Clapp (1609–1690) was an early English colonist who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts and served as a military and political leader in early colonial Massachusetts.

Roger Clapp was born in 1609 in Salcombe Regis, Devon, England and became a devout Puritan Christian and emigrated to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1629/30 on the Mary and John, and then stopped in Nantasket in 1630, before eventually settling in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Clapp served for many years as Lieutenant and then Captain of the Dorchester militia based at Castle Island, one of the first military forts in the original thirteen colonies.

Clapp also was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.

He left large tracts of land to his family, including parcels in Dorcester and Ponkapoag, near the Native American Praying town.