It is not surprising that an aristocracy so autocratic as to contend with near relatives for supremacy of this kind should be bitterly antagonistic to the Rogerenes, who not only shun worldly position for themselves but refuse to be subject to its rule in all matters pertaining to the Christian religion. Youth of the Congregational church, who are to grow up under influences of the above description, are destined, thirty years from this date, to be church members themselves and to take part with their elders, as advocates of a “holy Sabbath,” in a movement against the Rogerenes which is to result in the great countermove of 1764-66, and the retaliatory measures adopted in that contest.

We find in the “Hempstead Diary”:—“July 17, 1743, Hannah Plumb,[[148]] a young woman, was baptized in ye river at ye town beach by Samuel son of John Rogers.” This not only shows Samuel Rogers (son of John, 2d) to be a leading Rogerene, but is one of the proofs that some of the Plumb family, the elder members of which are prominent in the town and Congregational church, are of Rogerene persuasion; also that the Rogerenes have got beyond the Mill Cove for baptisms.

About 1735, John Culver and wife, with their sons and families, together with other Rogerenes of Groton, emigrated to New Jersey, where they founded a Rogerene settlement. (The cause of this removal is unknown. The theory that it was to escape persecution is weakened, not only by proof that the Culvers had proven themselves of heroic mould in this struggle, but by the fact that there was a cessation of virulent persecution at this time.) In the course of a few years, they are found, with quite a following, at Waretown[[149]] (in the southern part of what is now Ocean County), holding their meetings in a schoolhouse. A man by the name of Weair, the founder of Waretown, is one of their Society; an enterprising business man, who is described as a most worthy Christian.[[150]]

The location of this little Rogerene community is about one hundred and forty miles from Ephrata, Pa., where is a Society of Dunkers, among whom are certain brethren who dwell apart from the secular portion of the community, in a cloister. This Society observe the seventh day as a Sabbath, and hold closely to New Testament teaching and example, not discarding healing by faith and prayer and the anointing with oil. The brethren of the cloister appear to believe in direct enlightenment being accorded to such as lead devout lives. They have acquired the name and fame of “holy men.” John Culver has visited these brethren of the cloister, and a mutual friendship and interest have resulted.

In 1744, a number of these Ephrata brethren, being on a pilgrimage in the vicinity of the New Jersey Rogerenes, pay them a visit. The reputation of these “holy men,” in regard to healing by prayer, and also the fidelity of the Rogerenes to this scriptural mode, is shown by the fact, recorded by the Pilgrims, that the New Jersey Rogerenes brought their sick to them, in the hope that they might be restored to health.[[151]]

The Culvers urge the Pilgrims to visit the Rogerenes of New London, and with such effect that the brethren embark for Connecticut. They land at Blackpoint, where they are received by a Rogerene of that vicinity, who later escorts them to Bolles Hill, where they make their headquarters at the house of John Bolles. They speak, in their journal, of the Rogerenes as leading “a quiet life apart,” in the country, and state that they had with them a “most peaceful visit.” From the country they are escorted into the town, where they are entertained at the house of Ebenezer Bolles (son of John), whom they describe in their journal as “a blessed virtuous man.” They advise him not to marry, not knowing that he is engaged to Mary, the seventeen-year-old daughter of John Rogers, 2d, and has made his house ready for the bride who is very shortly to occupy it.

Notwithstanding the fact that the town, by description of the tourists, is in a state of agitation and excitement, on account of rumors of war with Spain and the religious differences and public disputes occasioned by the presence and preaching of the New Light evangelists, the citizens vie with the Rogerenes in kindly and interested attentions to the strangers, who speak highly of the hospitality of the people and describe New London as “a fruitful garden of God.” When the day for their departure arrives, the Rogerenes provide passage for them to New York, to which “gifts” of some kind are added, by reason of which the Pilgrims state that they took away with them more than they brought. There is mention of these strangers in the “Hempstead Diary,” under date of October 10, 1744, where they are described as men with beards eight or nine inches long, without hats and dressed in white. By their own description, a crowd followed them in New London wherever they went.

No mention is made by the Pilgrims of any unpleasantness between the Rogerenes and their neighbors, unless the “quiet life apart” of the former can be thus construed. That the Rogerenes sympathize with the New Lights to a considerable degree is more than probable; yet they seem to go their own way, undisturbed and unexcited by the surrounding ferment.[[152]]

New ecclesiastical laws have recently been enacted, largely on account of the advent of the New Lights, and old laws are to be more strictly enforced. The rulers are tightening the reins, and the Rogerenes with other nonconformists are likely to receive a cut of the lash. In 1745, Joshua Hempstead writes in his Diary:—

Sunday, June 16.—John Rogers and Bolles and Waterus and Adrw Daviss and about 20 more of their Gang, came Down into Town with a cart and oxen and were taken up by the officers and Committed to Prison, also 4 Women of their Company Came to ye Meetinghouse and began to preach and were taken away to Prison also.