“Our answer is,” he continues, “to confirm our faith in the Almighty Saviour, who said, ‘Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.’”
We are glad that our faith needs no such confirmation. Said the apostle, “We know whom we have believed.” But what have the ages preceding the Rogerene movement not lost, who lived and passed away before this new means of confirming the truth of the gospel was discovered!
“Shall be rooted up.” If he refers to the principles advocated by the Rogerenes, to the seed of equal religious rights sown by them, these are deeper rooted in the hearts, consciences and understandings of men to-day than ever before at any period in the world’s history.
To quote further from Mr. McEwen’s discourse:
“Men and women of low minds, in regions of darkness, now invent religions.”
An insinuation, perhaps, that the Rogerenes were “men and women of low minds.” They did not invent a new religion, as we have fully shown, and, for intelligence, for wealth, for moral rectitude, were not behind others, as will further appear.
Mr. McEwen spoke of “a small remnant of their posterity, almost unknown, in a neighboring town,” seeming to intimate, perhaps unintentionally, that all, or nearly all, “their posterity” were in that “town” and “almost unknown.”
We will mention some of their numerous posterity outside of this “neighboring town,” where in fact are and have been comparatively few of their descendants, showing first and chiefly how numerous and well known are descendants of James Rogers, Sr., and his son John Rogers, founders of this sect, in the town in which Mr. McEwen resided and where he delivered this sermon.
First, we will mention Miss Frances Manwaring Caulkins, of pleasant memory, author of “The History of New London,” and also Pamela, her amiable sister, for many years an acceptable teacher in this city. They were descendants of James Rogers, Sr., as was also their brother, Henry P. Haven, so well known in religious and commercial circles, to whose munificent gift, and that of his daughter, Mrs. Anna Perkins, we are indebted for our Public Library, a noble monument to their memory. The mother of Henry P. Haven and the Misses Caulkins was a sister of Christopher Manwaring, formerly a well-known citizen of this town, whose father, Robert Manwaring, married Elizabeth Rogers, daughter of James4. Miss Caulkins was also of Rogerene descent on her father’s side, in the line of Joseph, son of James, Sr.
The late Dr. Robert A. Manwaring, son of the above Christopher Manwaring, was, by both his parents, honored by Rogers descent, his mother being daughter of Dr. Simon Wolcott, of Windsor, who married Lucy Rogers a descendant of James2 and settled in this place.