Born in County Antrim in 1835 to Alexander Whiteford, a watchmaker, and his wife Isabella Mathers, she emigrated to Newfoundland with her parents in 1850.

[8] She was remembered in 1938 by writer Robert Gear MacDonald in this way:Mrs. Rogerson was not native born, she came here from Antrim County in the north of Ireland.

Her later works especially, with the poems "Cabot," "Mid-Summer Eve," "Topsail," this last full of lovely sights and sounds), are all beautiful, and racy of the sea and soil.

All her poems were of a high standard of literary excellence and breathed a broad spirit of Christianity and patriotism which will perpetuate her memory among the generations to come in Newfoundland.

"[12] Her work has also been criticized as being colonialist in approach:Rogerson’s poetry collection is a reflection of the sentiments of the time, but in its creation, publication and distribution, it also helped perpetuate and normalise what she sees as appropriate behaviour for a colony of the British Empire.

Rogerson died 2 February 1905 at her residence on Queen Street, St John’s, after a protracted illness:[3][11] Her cause of death was listed as cardiac failure.

[15]A telegram from St John's yesterday to Mrs. Munn conveyed the news of the death of Mrs. Isabella Rogerson, wife of the Hon.

[1][3] Her name is also inscribed on a second gravestone, located off Duckworth Street, possibly a practice stone left behind by a nearby monument business.