At our public meeting in New London the 17th of the 6th month, 1764, Joseph Bolles was appointed clerk for our Society, to write, etc.
This may certify all persons whom it may concern, that I, Timothy Walterhouse[190], do take thee, Content Whipple, to be my lawful, wedded wife, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, and I promise to perform to thee all the duties of a husband according to the Scriptures, while death shall separate us.
And I, Content Whipple, do take thee, Timothy Walterhouse, to be my lawful, wedded husband, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, and I promise to perform to thee all the duties of a wife according to the Scriptures, while death shall separate us.
The above named couple have been lawfully published, and now at our public meeting in New London, the seventeenth day of the sixth month, 1764, they both acknowledged and signed this paper, after they heard it read. Thus they are man and wife, married, according to the laws of God, in our presence.
Among the various marriages in this church book are two well-known New London Rogerenes,—Thomas Turner and Enoch Bolles (son of John). Both of these are second marriages and the brides of Quakertown affinity, one of them (bride of Thomas Turner) being widow of John Waterhouse, 2d. John Waterhouse, 2d, lived in New London at, or near, Quaker Hill.
By 1811, we find the paper to be signed reading as follows:—
These lines certify all people whom they may concern that I, William Waterous, and I, Clarissa Cushman, both of said Groton, are joined together in a lawful covenant of marriage, not to be separated until God who hath joined us together shall separate us by death, and furthermore it is enjoined on us that we perform the duty due to each other as the Scripture doth teach.
In presence of
Copies of these and other records were furnished us by Mr. Jabez Watrous of Quakertown.
These marriages were, with the exceptions noted, of Rogerenes on the Groton side, although the public meetings in which the earlier ones were solemnized were held in New London, and most of the witnesses were of New London. The New London Rogerenes continued to be married by regular ministers or justices of the peace. Thus early, we find an exclusiveness on the part of the Groton Rogerenes not discoverable among those of New London. Yet all of the Rogerenes considered marriage a strictly religious ceremony, consisting of vows taken before God and not to be annulled save for the one cause stated in the New Testament, while all know for how comparatively slight causes marriages in other denominations have been set aside. By the Quakertown method, the parties took each other for husband and wife in the presence of their “elder” and the assembled congregation; the elder did not pronounce them man and wife, they having taken each other before God; but the marriage was recorded in the church book, with names of several witnesses attached. We find certificates of these marriages both on the New London and Groton town records, further showing their legal character. Among them the following:—
Personally appeared John Crouch and Rachel Watrous, both of Groton, and were married in presence of me
Where the antique marriage anecdote to which reference has been made originated, or to what persons it was first applied, is a matter of uncertainty; but, as it has frequently been attached to others besides Rogerenes, it is likely to have originated in quite different quarters. It appears to have become attached to the Rogerenes through the fallacious notions previously mentioned. Even the talented and scholarly author of the Bolles Genealogy (Gen. J. A. Bolles) was misled by this anecdote, together with the current statement in regard to lack of marriage ceremony among the Rogerenes, and also by his failure to find a record of the marriage of Joseph Bolles.[191]
Marriage publications were not entered upon New London records; but the publication of Joseph Bolles and Martha Lewis, in the Congregational church, in 1731, is plainly recorded in the “Hempstead Diary.” Mr. J. A. Bolles had no knowledge of the existence of this Diary.
The anecdote which Mr. J. A. Bolles judged too good to be spoiled for the sake of relationship, yet of which he said: “The story has been told of so many that I doubt its authenticity,” has had so many versions, even as attached to the Rogerenes, that it cannot well be presented in this connection without laying before the reader several of the Rogerene versions that have become current. Space is given for these the more readily, because this is a good illustration of the scurrilous stories that have been told regarding this greatly abused sect.
Among the idols which it was the mission of these fanatics to demolish, was the Congregational ceremony of marriage. One of their sturdy zealots, a widower of middle age, announced his intention to take for his wife, without any formality of marriage, a widow in the neighborhood. Mr. Saltonstall remonstrated against the design of the man, but he stoutly maintained and declared his purpose. The clergyman, seeing him enter the house of his intended, also went in that he might see them together. “You, sir,” said he to the man, “will not disgrace yourself and the neighborhood by taking this woman for your wife without marriage?” “Yes,” he replied, “I will.” “But you, madam,” said the wily watchman, “will not consent to become his wife in this improper manner?” “Yes,” said she, “I do.” “Then,” said he, “I pronounce you husband and wife; and I shall record your marriage in the records of the church.”
The marriage records of the Congregational church, all of which are extant, give no record of any such Rogerene widower and widow. Any marriage of an irregular nature in those times, and to a much later date, would have been proven until this day by record of presentment at the County Court of the woman upon the birth of every child, with attendant fine or whipping. Since not a single such presentment in the case of a Rogerene (with the exception of Mary Ransford) is to be found on the court records, the opening statement of Mr. McEwen is even by that one evidence disproved.
Mr. Field tells above story in substantially the same manner, but causes the Rogerene to say, at the close: “Ah, Gurdon, thou art a cunning creature!” Mr. Field adds, in a footnote to the printed Discourse, that “there can be no authority for the story except tradition,” but that it bears “so many marks of probability that there can be no reason to doubt its correctness.” Doubtless it was such “marks of probability” that induced Mr. Field to credit the story that the Rogerenes entered the churches unclothed, which he incorporated among the various erroneous statements relating to these people contained in this Discourse, although he had abundant means of knowing of its absence from all New London history or tradition.
There is a tradition in the family that Governor Saltonstall, who had a high regard for Mr. and Mrs. Bolles, contrived to marry them without their suspecting it. It is said that after Mr. and Mrs. Bolles had had one or two children, and been threatened by “some rude fellows of the baser sort” with prosecution, the Governor one day invited himself to dine with friends Joseph and Martha. As the dinner went on, friend Gurdon, in easy conversation, very adroitly led both Mr. and Mrs. Bolles severally to declare that they had taken each other as man and wife in a lifelong union, and regarded themselves bound by the marriage covenant before God and man. As Mrs. Bolles assented to her husband’s declaration, with her smiling “Yea, yea,” the Governor rose to his feet and spreading out his hands exclaimed: “By virtue of my office as civil magistrate, and as a minister of God, I declare you lawful husband and wife.” “Ah, Gurdon,” said Joseph, “thou art a cunning creature!”
It is strange that so intellectual and scholarly a man as Mr. John A. Bolles did not perceive that the best part of this joke was in the extreme friendship displayed between the ardent Rogerene leader, Joseph Bolles, and Governor Saltonstall, as well as in the fact that the governor must have risen from the dead to marry Joseph Bolles, the marriage of the latter having occurred seven years after the death of Governor Saltonstall; also that had there been a child born to such a couple in those days, no “fellows of the baser sort” of any less consequence than the regular town authorities would have needed to take them in hand.
There was incessant war between John Rogers and the town because his wife had been divorced from him. Though she was twice married, he attempted to capture her by force, but finally married himself to his bond-servant Mary Ransford. This scandalized the community, and the pair were hauled before the several courts. No persuasion would induce them to be legally united, and almost in despair Gurdon Saltonstall, then minister, sent for the pair. “Do you really, John,” said he, “take this woman, your bond-servant, bought with your money, for your wife?”
“Yes,” said Rogers defiantly, “I do.”
“Is it possible, Mary, that you take this man, so much older than yourself, for your husband?”
“Yes,” said she doggedly, “I do.”
“Then,” said the minister solemnly, “I pronounce you, according to the law of this colony, man and wife.”
“Ah, Gurdon,” said Rogers, “thou art a cunning creature!”
Had this historian never read the famous history of the place in which she dwells, written by Miss Caulkins, wherein is proof absolute that John Rogers and Mary Ransford had not the honor of being married by Governor Saltonstall? Although Miss Caulkins herself gives a version of this story (History of New London), she calls attention to the fact that it could not be true, as proven by court records.
It is here stated that “one day as Gov. Saltonstall was sitting in his room, smoking his pipe,” a man by the name of Gorton came in with a woman, and announced that he had taken her for his wife without any ceremony, upon which the governor, “taking his pipe from his mouth,” went through the usual form in these anecdotes, whereupon Gorton exclaimed: “Thou art a cunning creature!” Barber gives this anecdote among his various false statements regarding the Rogerenes.
Alexander Bolles, one of the early itinerant preachers, who preached in three States among the Alleghany Mountains, says the Argonaut, was much tormented by the influence of one John Rogers, a Jerseyman, who openly taught atheism and the abolishment of marriage. On one occasion, while holding a meeting in the woods of Virginia, a young man and woman pushed their way up to the stump which served as a pulpit. The man, interrupting the sermon [of course], said defiantly:—
“I’d like you to know that we are Rogerenes.” The old man looked at him over his spectacles and waited. “We don’t believe in God, nor in marriage. This is my wife because I choose her to be; but I’ll have no preacher nor squire meddling with us.”
“Do you mean to tell me,” thundered Father Bolles, “that you have taken this girl home as your wife?”
“Yes, I do,” said the fellow doggedly.
“And have you gone willingly to live with him as your husband?”
“Yes,” said the frightened girl.
“Then I pronounce you man and wife, and whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder. Be off with you. You are married now according to the law and the gospel.”
This rehash of several aspersions, spiced by newspaper humor, has, as is perceived, for the best part of its joke (to those better informed than its writer) several amusing paradoxes; viz., that the opposing preacher should bear the name of Bolles; that John Rogers, instead of dying in New London a so-called religious fanatic, had a Rip Van Winkle sleep in New Jersey where he awoke an atheist and at the same time a Rogerene.
The dragon’s tooth which Mr. Blake appears to have manufactured himself, with no assistance whatever, for his “History of the First Church of Christ, of New London,” is of a more serious character than even such anecdotes as these. This new production is to the effect that the General Court (1684) granted Matthew Griswold and his daughter Elizabeth further guardianship of John Rogers, Jr., “on account Of the continuance of his father in immoral practices.”
The manner in which Mr. Blake so easily manufactured a statement never before made by any historian in regard to John Rogers, is by having (doubtless inadvertently) placed together as contexts two court records which have no relation to each other. The continuance of John Rogers, Jr., in the custody of Matthew Griswold and Elizabeth, granted in 1784, because John Rogers was “continuing in his evil practices,” etc., referred, as observed by previous historians, to the giving the two children into the mother’s charge in 1677, on account (as distinctly stated in the records) of John Rogers “being so hettridox in his opinion and practice,” even to breaking the holy Sabbath, etc. Mr. Blake went back of this the true context, to the alleged cause of the divorce suit in 1675, which cause was not so much as referred to by the court when the children were assigned to the care of the mother and grandfather, which assignment was wholly on the ground of the father’s “hettridoxy.” To have given the children to the care of the mother and grandfather on account of a charge against John Rogers of which he had been acquitted by the grand jury, would have been an impossible proceeding. His transgression of the ecclesiastical laws and usages were “evil practices” to the view of Matthew Griswold, Elizabeth, and the General Court.
There has now been demonstrated the unreliable character of the main charges that have been brought against John Rogers and the Rogerenes, to be repeated by succeeding “historians” and added to not infrequently, through prejudice, humor, or lack of examination into the facts. It is trusted that the evidence given in this present work will sufficiently prove it the result of painstaking research and studious investigation, with no worse bias than that in favor of the undoing of falsehood and misapprehension and the righting of grievous wrongs.
Is it too much to ask that every person who presents so-called history to the public shall be expected to present as clear evidence in support of his statements and assertions, as is demanded of a witness in a court-room, or forfeit the reputation of a reliable author? Only by such reasonable demand, on the part of readers, can past history be sifted of its chaff and future history deserve the name.
Times have changed since John Rogers, Jr., went “up and down the colony” selling his little book; but a public at large, to which this youth trusted for a fair hearing and for sympathy, still exists,—a public which, as a whole, is never deaf to a call for justice. In the hands of this court, of highest as of safest appeal, is left the “History of the Rogerenes.”