[178]. Great-grandson of John Rogers, 2d, and of John Bolles.
[179]. This information was furnished by a native of Quakertown who attended this meeting—Mr. Ira Whipple, afterwards of Westerly.
[180]. In Mr. Bowna’s account of his conversation with John Rogers (1703) he states that John Rogers said his Society “admitted any one who wanted information concerning the meaning of any text to put the question, and it was then expounded and spoken to as they understood it; and one being admitted to show his dissent with his reasons for it: ‘Thus,’ said he, ‘we improve our youth in Scriptural knowledge.’ I asked him if they did not sometimes carry their differences in sentiment too far, to their hurt? He acknowledged there was danger in doing so, but they guarded against it as much as they could.”
[181]. In his last sickness, Elder Zephania Watrous sent for the leader of the party which had opposed his conservative views and asked forgiveness for anything on his own part that might have seemed unfriendly to his opponent.
[182]. It is not to be inferred that no new families have come into Quakertown, or that none of the people have married outside. Accessions to this community have been not infrequent, both by marriage and otherwise.
[183]. Quakertown is said not to be so rocky and sterile as it appears to a person riding over the road, but to have a considerable amount of good farming-land.
[184]. The following is from a poem by Mrs. Benham, entitled “Peace.”
Where is the nation brave enough to say,
“I have no need of sword, or shield, or gun;
I will disarm before the world this day;