Forgot their Sabbath day.
After the tumult was over, these church members remembered their Sabbath, and returned to their pretended worship again: But as soon as that was over, the authority consulted together at the meeting house, and sent the high-sheriff, who came with a company of men and took down ten women out of that dark loft that the authority had shut them up in (two of these women had young children with them and another was big with child)[[196]] and committed them to prison, leaving near twenty small children motherless at their homes. Now as the high-sheriff was going from the meeting house, to commit these women to prison, some of the people of the town asked him what they were going to do with our friends; the sheriff answered that the women were to be committed to prison, but he said the men were to be delivered up to Satan to be buffetted. So the authority kept the men locked up in that dark garret till night, and then they were delivered up to the authority’s children and a rude company of young men, who came and unlocked the trap door and abused our friends in the manner following: They took down one man first out of this dark loft and brought him down into the lower room of the court-house, and tied his hands round a post, also they tied another line to his hands and hoisted him up by a tackle, then they brought his knees round the post and tied them with a line, and stripped his clothes up over his head and tied them also; then they whipped him in a very barbarous manner by the light of a candle. And when they had done torturing him, they let him down and shut him up in one of the court house chambers. They then brought down another out of the garret, and tortured him after the same manner as they did the first, and then shut him up also, pretending they would whip them all over again, except they would recant and promise not to come among them any more. There were twelve whippers that took turns at the whip, and commonly three or four to whip one man, one after another. They pretended to give those men thirty nine stripes each, but they used several sorts of whips, especially one unmerciful instrument made of cow-hide, also they whipped them with large rods tied together, some of which had ten in a bunch, so that they far exceeded thirty nine stripes, for they struck each person thirty nine times with that cruel instrument, except one man, which after they had struck him thirty unmerciful blows, one of the spectators ran and untied him, telling the whippers he was an old man and they ought to use some discretion towards him. Nine men were thus used this night, all heads of families, some of which were elderly men that had great families of children.
This whipping was executed in a very barbarous manner, for the rods were trimmed, and long sharp fangs left on them, to tear the flesh of the sufferers, also these men that whipped our friends struck them in such a violent manner with these heavy bunches of rods that they beat and bruised their flesh till it was like jelly. Moreover some of their wrists were so cut and their sinews so much hurt with the line they hung by, that several of their hands were numb for more than two months after. Also the two men that had been so unmercifully whipped by this company in the court house the week before, and otherwise abused, were of these men that suffered that night: And they struck one of these men, he that had been the most abused the week before, forty three cruel blows on his old sores, and ten or twelve of these blows were after he had swooned away. Our persecutors cut these rods upon their Sabbath, and fitted them at the court house, and Colonel Saltonstall was at the court house among them when they were preparing the rods.... When their persecutors heard them praying and calling on Christ for strength, they would threaten them, and whip them with all their might, endeavoring to make them promise to renounce their testimony against their worship, but were not able to make one of them renounce their testimony, or make any promise at all. But the sufferers told them to this effect, that what they did against their worship was for no other end but to please God and keep a good conscience, and that if they should promise to renounce their testimony God would renounce their souls forever. Also when some of the men that had suffered this cruel whipping were shut up in the court house chamber, they prayed earnestly to God to strengthen their brethren that were to suffer, also they prayed for their persecutors, for God gave them more than a common love to those that were tormenting them.
So after these nine men had suffered, they were set at liberty. Their persecutors threatened them to double their whipping every time they came to the meeting house among them. And no doubt they would have gone further, had not God prevented them by making a division among the people; the neighboring towns crying out against such barbarous and unlawful behavior; also it was a common saying among the people that they were sorry their rulers had resigned up their authority to a company of boys and set them to defend their worship....
The above is but a small part of such blood-curdling accounts, filling a good-sized pamphlet. Portions will be found in the “History of New London,” not quoted here. Near the end is something less thrilling.
Sept. 14, 1766. Some of our people went and sat down some distance from the priest’s house, and when he came out to go to meeting, they walked with him and endeavored to have some friendly discourse with him concerning the things of God; But the priest would not talk with them about the things of God. However, they walked with him and talked to him, but before they came to the meeting house, justice Coit began to kick them in a furious manner, especially the women. Also one of the townsmen fell upon them, punching both men and women with a staff in a cruel manner, so they were driven by some of the people to the upper end of the town.
The next first day of the week, being the 21st of Sept., as some of us were setting by the side of a house, between meetings, about four or five rods from the priest’s house, saying nothing to any person, the high-sheriff came, with some assistants and took us and sent for justice Coit, who came and committed eight men of us to prison. And on the 26th day of the same month, justice Coit came to the prison, and we were taken out and brought before him, and he charged us with disturbing the minister’s peace. We told him we had no thought of doing the minister any hurt. Justice Coit answered, that he did not suppose that we intended to strike him or wrestle with him, nor did he suppose we intended to hurt a hair of his head, but he supposed that we intended, when the minister came out, to go along by his side and talk with him. So when justice Coit had confessed that he did not suppose we intended to hurt a hair of the priest’s head, he fined us five shillings each, and required bonds of good behavior towards all his majesty’s subjects; but especially towards the priest. But we refused to give such bonds, looking upon the judgment to be very absurd, and that justice Coit’s supposing that we intended to talk with the priest was not breach of the peace in us, so he committed seven of us to prison again, all heads of families, one of which men was in his 75th year. Four of these men were kept in prison till the 13th of December following, and two were set at liberty about the 28th of November, and one within a few days after we were committed to prison.
Now after these men were committed to prison, our friends that were at liberty thought it necessary that some of our people should go on the first days of the week and set in the priest’s sight and not fear them that persecute the body. But when the priest saw them sitting in sight, if it were but a few women, he would not come out of his house to go to meeting.... Also this behavior of the priest occasioned much trouble to his poor flock, for sometimes the bell would ring and the people sit waiting for their priest till it was time for meeting to be half done: And then justice Coit, or some of the rest of his sheep, were obliged to come and move the women out of the priest’s sight, and guard their shepherd to the meeting house, lest these women should speak to him of the things of God.
It was almost every day of the first days of the week for the whole time of this imprisonment, which was near three months, that this shepherd was kept in his house by the sight of our friends, and sometimes only at the sight of a few women, and he never ventured to come out till some of his sheep came and drove the women away. But justice Coit committed no more of our friends to prison under bonds of good behavior because he supposed they intended to talk with the priest, after these men above mentioned. But the 23rd of November, one of our men told the priest, after he was come out of the meeting house, that he came to put him in mind how they kept God’s children in prison, and that their worship was upheld by cruelty. The priest answered to this effect, that they could uphold it in no other way. Then the man replied it must certainly be of the devil, if there was no other way to uphold it but by cruelty. But the sheriff struck him twice on the head, and punched him with his staff to prevent his speaking with the priest. And he and three women were committed to prison, but at night they were set at liberty.... God said, Jer. 1, 7,—“Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” Also the apostle Paul exhorteth us to be followers of him as he was of Christ, I Cor. XI. 1. And Paul spent much time in going from place to place, disputing in the synagogues on the Sabbath days, as appears in the Acts of the Apostles. And no doubt they built their synagogues, and thought, as our neighbors do, that they had a natural right to worship in them and that the apostle had no right to oppose them in their worship, for they were as much offended at the apostle as our neighbors are at us, for they called him a pestilent fellow, and said he was a mover of sedition throughout the world, Acts XXIV. 5. Also speaking of Paul and Silas they said, Acts XVII, “These that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also.”