At this same June court, the offender is brought from prison, and being charged with the first offense, of December 13, refuses to reply to the question “guilty or not guilty.”[[133]] The court now proceeds to give judgment, “on a nihil dicit,” of £20 fine, with charges of prosecution, and if he do not immediately pay or give surety he “shall be let out,” until the same is paid. The same judgment, upon a nihil dicit, is pronounced in regard to the blowing of the horn, viz.: fine of £20, which if not paid he is to be let out, etc.
Yet this very act of blowing a horn on Sunday near a meeting-house, in time of service, is among the offenses enumerated upon the law book as finable by only 40s., which is all the young man had reason to expect. Here are more than £40 for this young man to pay, or go to common servitude for a long period.
Nor is this all that is charged against John Waterhouse at this June court. He is examined on suspicion of being concerned in a most astonishing performance, in the month previous (May 4), viz.: the “opening and carrying away of the doors of the prison” to which the clarion blast had consigned him, and in which he had been confined something over a month. At date of this June court, said doors have “not yet been found.” It is also stated that, during this imprisonment, he had made his escape from the prison several times—and, of course, he had escaped again at the time of the opening of the doors. He pleads “not guilty” regarding the doors, probably, as do other Rogerenes in such cases, admitting no guilt in doing that which they consider right, however contrary it may be to the law. Fortunately for the romance, he does not satisfy the court that he had no hand in said damage and disappearance. The jailer is to recover from him the value of the prison doors “as they were, with the locks on them,” which is £5. With charge of prosecution and another fine of £20 for this offense, added to his previous fines, more than £70 are required of this young man at this June court. £70 represents a snug little fortune (at this date), enough to buy a good farm “with mansion house thereon.” This is the more preparing him for life-long opposition to ecclesiastical government, an opposition which is to be transmitted undiminished to his descendants. (For this young man is to be the founder of the Quakertown community, that “remnant” which, in the words of Rev. Abel McEwen, “exists in a neighboring town.”)
Since John Waterhouse is to be so potent a factor in Rogerene history, let us scrutinize him as closely as the scanty glimpses permit. Is he not some young scapegrace, allied to the Rogerenes for love of their so venturesome and exciting life? So he might be judged, but for the preamble of one old deed of gift on the New London records, despite the fact that he is a son of Jacob Waterhouse and grandson of Mr. Robert Douglass,[[134]] two of the most substantial citizens of New London and members of the Congregational church. Jacob Waterhouse, in 1717, singled out this son John to receive, by deed of gift, the family homestead, “my father’s habitation,[[135]] near the mill bridge,” as well as a valuable tract of land at “Foxen’s Hill” on the river; not because he was his oldest son, but “for love and appreciation of his dutiful behavior.” It is, then, the dutiful son of a wealthy and honorable citizen of New London who was arraigned as above at the June court in 1720. Surely it would not be wise to omit visiting upon this renegade youth dire punishment for his bold espousal of Rogerene faith and Rogerene methods, lest other promising young men of the Congregational fold should dare to venture upon a like career.
But we are not yet through with this interesting June court. John Bolles is here arraigned, on a like suspicion of being concerned in opening and carrying away those prison doors “that have not yet been found.” For declining, at the time of their disappearance, “to give any reply to inquiries made of him concerning that matter” he has been imprisoned until now. He now pleads “not guilty,” which of itself might mean that he acknowledges no guilt in the matter; but his wife is present to testify that he was at home upon the night of this romantic occurrence, also Esther Waterhouse,[[136]] “who lodged at John Bolle’s that night,” testifies to the same effect; upon which John Bolles is to be discharged, on payment of costs of prosecution and prison fees. One can but marvel that John Bolles did not in the first place avail himself of this so convenient testimony, and thus escape imprisonment and expense. Also, why were not those noted prison breakers, John Rogers, Sr. and Jr., arraigned, on suspicion of complicity in this matter? Had they no hand in this achievement, or were their tracks so well covered that no slightest clew could be discovered by the authorities? Did John Bolles, knowing he had evidence to clear himself at sitting of the June court, allow himself to be imprisoned on this suspicion, in order to draw attention from the true culprits?
Sometime in this year is printed, in Boston, “The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ,” by John Rogers, Sr.[[137]]
CHAPTER X.
1721.
1721. Feb. 26, Sunday.—The Quakers at Meeting made a great disturbance; especially Sarah Bolles.—Hempstead Diary.
Mr. Hempstead, in his usual brief style of chronicle, gives no further light upon this matter. By the records of the County Court, in the following June, it is shown that the Quakers referred to in the Diary were John Bolles, his wife Sarah and John Waterhouse, and that the impelling reason for this countermove was because John Waterhouse had been seized and maltreated for baptizing Joseph Bolles, eldest son of John and Sarah, now twenty years of age, who, on entering upon a religious life, had, with the approval of his father and mother and the rest of the Society to which his whole family belonged, selected this young leader to baptize him.