185. Jonathan Whipple was born in 1794. He never attended school, but it was not from lack of inclination, for he most ardently desired an education. The reader from which his mother taught him his letters he learned so thoroughly that he could repeat it verbatim. In arithmetic he had no instruction further than the fundamental rules, but while he was yet a boy he learned enough of numbers to answer for ordinary occasions. His father set him his first copies in writing, but he improved so rapidly that he soon needed better instruction and got neighboring school-teachers to write copies for him. Ere many years had elapsed, he had no need of copies, since he ranked in penmanship among the first.

Although Mr. Whipple was a hard-working mason, he so much felt the need of more education than he possessed, that, after he had married and settled down in life, he set about informing himself more thoroughly than his previous opportunities had allowed. He so far qualified himself, that he was employed several terms to teach a school of over seventy pupils. In point of discipline and promptness of education his school ranked first in town.

He contributed many articles to various papers, touching on the great topics before the public. The temperance cause received his hearty support, for he was a total abstinence man, at a time when even the most respectable men regularly took their “grog.”

He was an abolitionist of the most radical type long before the names of Garrison and Phillips were known in the land.

As an advocate for universal peace, he was found among the pioneers in the cause. In short, he was a philanthropist in the broadest and truest sense of the word; he labored all his life for the good of his fellow-creatures. He was kind and generous; was never engaged in a law-suit in his life, and spent more time with the sick than any other non-professional man of our acquaintance. In the summer of 1820 the typhoid fever raged in his neighborhood; he spent his whole time, without a thought of reward, among the sufferers.

His blameless and useful life made him respected and beloved wherever he was known.

The fame, however, that he acquired was chiefly due to his remarkable success in teaching the deaf to talk.

When the youngest of his five children was old enough to walk, he noticed that, although the boy seemed active and intelligent, he made no effort to speak. The discovery that his little Enoch was actually deaf, was a trial which seemed greater than he could endure. To think that this (his youngest) son must be forever shut out of the world of sound and doomed to endless silence was unendurable. After many fruitless trials to make the boy hear and repeat what he heard, the father gave it up as useless.

Mr. Whipple had never heard of the schools in Europe where the deaf are taught articulation and lip-reading; but, at length, noticing that Enoch would sometimes attempt to repeat a word, if he was looking directly at the speaker’s mouth, the thought occurred to the father that perhaps every word had a shape, and that by learning the shape of each letter, as moulded by the mouth, the boy might be taught to imitate it. The task was begun. Every moment Mr. Whipple could spare,—for he was a poor man, and besides his own family there were some orphan children depending upon him,—he devoted to teaching his little son. It was astonishing what progress was made. Other members of the family also acted as teachers, and as Enoch grew towards manhood, he was not merely on par with his associates, but acknowledged by all to be a superior youth. He could read, could write a nice hand, and for deciphering poor penmanship there was scarcely his equal for miles around. He could also talk. To such perfection was his instruction carried by his energetic father that this deaf man has done business with strangers, bought goods of merchants, etc., and has gone away without leaving a suspicion of his infirmity.

As has been seen, the efforts of Mr. Whipple did not end with teaching his own son. He made many successful experiments with other deaf mutes, which led to the founding of The Home School for the deaf at Mystic.

After Jonathan Whipple had passed his seventieth year, his faculties remained unimpaired, and he was as indefatigable in his efforts to improve the condition of the afflicted as when his theory was first put in practice. His life was a useful and beautiful one; not a struggle to gain wealth or to win fame; but simply to do good. His declining years were cheered by the knowledge that he had wronged none and bettered many.—Abstract from Life of Jonathan Whipple in “Men of Mark.”

186. Peter Pratt appears to have lived in East Lyme, then a part of New London.

187. To this statement of Peter Pratt is traceable the following from Miss Caulkins: “Suppose at the present day a man like Rogers should enter, etc., accompanying all this with violent contortions, coarse expletives, and foaming at the mouth, would it not require great forbearance,” etc.

Nothing was more foreign to the teachings of John Rogers and his followers, or more abhorred by Rogerenes in general—as will be readily attested by those familiar with their principles—than any vulgarity, or even ordinary coarseness, of speech or manner.

Miss Caulkins also states (“History of Norwich”) that John Rogers accosted Dr. Lord (over one hundred years before) in a very loud voice, asking him if they wore wigs in heaven, giving her story from “tradition.” This is evidently a mixture of the Peter Pratt court scene, and the contribution of the wig to Mr. Saltonstall.

188. J. Backus, the justice who apprehended and scourged the Lebanon party in 1725, appears to have been grandfather of the historian of the Baptists.

189. At that date the Congregationalists did not hold prayer-meetings, or any evening services. They had, however, a religious “lecture” on Friday afternoons.

190. The original name appears to have been Walterhouse, contracted first to Waterhouse and then to Watrous.

191. Mr. Bolles also said that he could not find a record of the birth or marriage of Joseph Bolles, Jr., on the town records, but we had no difficulty in finding both of the latter upon those records; and by close study of the New London records, we can affirm that no families of New London were better represented by careful entry of family records than were the Rogerenes, especially the Rogers and Bolles families.

The following clause in the deed by which John Rogers, 2d, set apart a burying-place for his descendants of itself sufficiently indicates the attitude of the Rogerenes regarding the sanctity and legal form of marriage:—

“I do give, grant, convey and confirm unto them my afores^d Sons and to all the Children that are or may be born unto my afores^d Sons or either of them in Wedlock lawfully begotten,” etc.

The most careful research and inquiry have failed to discover a single child born out of wedlock in this Society during the hundred years of its distinct existence. Joseph Bolles shows that there were some candid people among their enemies in his day, when he says: “Also the observers of this pretended Sabbath do allow that there is more immorality amongst themselves than there is among us who do not observe it.”

192. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

193. See “Debate Between Mr. Byles and the Cong. Church.”—People. “We never could conceive nor imagine how you could spend your time. You never visited any of your parishioners, but very seldom—seldom preached a new sermon; but old sermons over and over, etc.”

194. Gurdon, son of Governor Saltonstall.

195. See likeness to similar scene in Governor Saltonstall’s time, 1721 (Part II, Chapter X).

196. Delight Rogers (wife of John Rogers, 3d) was one of the women imprisoned. Her daughter Anna (mother of John R. Bolles) was born very soon after her release. The near-sightedness of this daughter was attributed to the fact that her mother wept so much during her imprisonment. Delight Rogers sat with the rest in the meeting-house; she did not take any work there. Mr. John R. Bolles in “Reminiscences of his Life,” published in a New London paper, said that the venerable Dr. Nathaniel Petting, who knew Delight Rogers, used to say to him: “If there ever was a good woman, your grandmother Lighty was one.”

197. Mr. Byles was at this time thirty years of age.

198. Unfortunately we have merely this in parenthesis concerning the stand taken by Mr. Byles in regard to the Rogerenes.

199. It will be remembered that Mr. Byle’s salary was a liberal one, and his family at this date could not have been large.