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.
Version No. II. (From Bi-Centennial Discourse (1870) by Rev. Mr. Field, successor to Mr. McEwen.)
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.
Version No. III. (From Bolles Genealogy, 1865—concerning Joseph Bolles, son of John Bolles, proof of whose marriage has been given.)
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.
Version No. IV. (From an article regarding the Rogerenes, by a talented historian of New London of the present date, which was published several years since in a New York paper.)
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.”