After all the verdicts in this case have been rendered, Sarah, wife of John Culver, knowing so much more of this season of persecution and the legal (and illegal) proceedings than is possible to outsiders, indignantly exclaims in court: “You are an adulterous generation and I hope God will find you out” (by Court Record), for which the court sentences her to receive fifteen stripes on the naked body and to pay charges for the same.

Nor is this the end of the matter. Sarah Bolles, despite all protest, still lies at the point of death in the cold and dismal “inner prison.” What can yet be done by this non-resistant people? They may not, by their principles, even waylay the jailer, seize his keys, hold him for a time in durance, and so rescue Sarah Bolles. But, upheld by the public sympathy now enlisted, they can head a resolved company of men and women, break down the gate of the prison fence, and, aided by the Rogerenes within the jail, force open the prison doors and bring out the helpless captive. This is exactly what takes place.

Before this same November court is at an end, complaint is made to said court by the keeper of the prison, that “John Culver, John Culver, Jr., Bathsheba, wife of John Rogers, Jr., and Mary Rogers, daughter of John Rogers, Sr., did, on the 26th and 27th of this Nov.” (viz., at midnight) “stave down part of the prison yard.” A significant ending of this record is that for this misdemeanor John Culver and his son are to pay only 10s. and charges, and Bathsheba and Mary to pay only the charges of their prosecution, also that John Rogers and the others still in prison are not brought before this court at all. All this shows the extent of public sympathy at the time, especially in regard to those concerned in the September countermove.

The court record does not inform us that Sarah Bolles was rescued from the prison by this raid and carried home in a cart; neither does it inform us that the company headed by the persons tried for this daring deed contained others besides Rogerenes, whose approbation was enlisted by the danger of a second murder being committed in that prison, through cruel neglect. Only by the public sympathy exhibited on this occasion can the facts be accounted for that no action is taken by the court regarding the escaped prisoner and no record of her escape made.

John Rogers had been returned to prison on account of non-payment of the £23, for disturbance of meeting. John, Jr., John Bolles and the others were in prison also for non-payment of smaller fines, for the same offense. Thus the attack from outside the prison lacked the usual leadership; yet that these prisoners were concerned in the rescue, from a position within the prison, is shown by a record of the General Court of November 30, to the effect that, at a special meeting of the Governor and Council, of that date, “it is ordered that the fines and penalties incurred by John Rogers etc.” (“etc.” doubtless including the others tried with John Rogers for the September countermove) “on account of recent tumultuous and riotous proceedings of which said prisoners have been guilty, be applied—upon collection of same—to the extraordinary charge which they have occasioned the county by said proceedings.” This “charge” evidently refers to repairs of the prison which was broken into three days before in behalf of Sarah Bolles. Why the Culvers and Mary and Bathsheba were brought before the County Court (where they were so lightly fined) and “John Rogers, Sr. etc.” dealt with by a special court can only be conjectured. It is not unlikely that this raid upon the jail resulted also in the rescue of Sarah Culver from the stripes. The fact that her husband and son acted with the women indicates such a possibility.

As has been seen, the arrest of Sarah Bolles was for some so-called “breach of Sabbath.”[[131]] Certainly she could not have been ploughing or carting. Had she been spinning at the door of her home, or had she ventured to walk some distance over the Norwich road to visit one of her friends? In either case, this would be no more than she had been doing ever since 1707; yet either of these acts would have furnished legal ground for her arrest. The only way to account for the proceedings against her is by supposition of another of the spasmodic attempts to intimidate and repress Rogerene leadership. That Sarah Bolles deserves the name of a leader in this Society is evident.

One of the most serious grievances of the Rogerenes, since they began to hold their services on Sunday, is that, although the Congregationalists are allowed to go long distances to Congregational meetings, the Rogerenes are arrested for travelling any considerable distance to meetings of their own persuasion. From the fact that they hold their meetings in private houses, such services are sometimes at one house and sometimes at another, and, as they are widely scattered (outside the nucleus at Quaker Hill), some of the members are always liable to travel some distance.

On Sunday, December 13, two weeks after the November trial just described, a young Rogerene, by the name of John Waterhouse, has the audacity to appear at the door of the Congregational meeting-house, and, “standing within the ground sill, in sermon time,” to exclaim: “I am come to enter complaint that I am stopped on the King’s highway.”[[132]] He has availed himself of the one efficient mode of defense, the Rogerene countermove.

1720.

The proof of this courageous stand of John Waterhouse, while the leading Rogerenes are in prison, is from records of the County Court, June, 1720. By these records it is also shown that some three months after the above offense (and apparently while out on bail, pending trial in June) this same young man “blew a horn or shell near the meeting-house, while the congregation were singing,” and, refusing to give bond for appearance at the County Court in June, “with good behavior in meantime,” is arrested and imprisoned.