“is violently opposed by some whose narrow principles, fierce inclinations and self interest have wedded to a spirit of persecution and an itch for domineering over their neighbors. That the present actions of the authority show that the king has nothing to do with this colony. That the compelling them to pay towards the maintainance of a Congregational Minister is contrary to law and therefore rapine and robbery. That the rights of peaceable dissenters have been of late, by permission of the authorities, violated, and that the authority has illegally oppressed them.”
(Here is proof of recent unusual procedures by the town magistrates, not only against the Rogerenes, but in regard to the quiet dissenters on the Great Neck and elsewhere. This persecution has been going on out of sight of the general public, by action of the town authorities, since no County Court record appears. Undoubtedly it was this revival of indignities that stirred John Rogers to his bold move.)
The “emitters” of this paper are placed under bonds for appearance at the County Court, where they are fined £5 each “for defamation of their Majesties,” viz.: “the Gov. of Conn. and others in authority,” as well as “breach of His Majesty’s peace and disquietude of his liege people.”
The “emitters” appeal to the Superior Court, not because they expect any favor from that quarter, but it keeps the cause before that public in whose sense of justice is all their hope.
1697.
Before May of this year, and while another trial of the case regarding the claim of Joseph to land awarded Jonathan is still in progress, occurs the death of Joseph Rogers. It is not unlikely that had both brothers lived they would have come to an amicable adjustment of the difficulty; since the evident perplexity of those charged with examination into the case, indicates reasonable arguments upon either side, and thus a matter well fitted for compromise.
Our glimpses of Joseph Rogers are meagre. He and his wife appear not to have joined the Newport church, but were evidently members of the church of which John Rogers was pastor. (We have seen the wife’s baptism, Chapter II.) Yet, of late years, Joseph has been scarcely more noticeable than Jonathan, as regards arraignment for labor on the first day of the week, which, as in case of the latter, appears to prove that his labor was not of an ostentatious character. That he was steady, thrifty, industrious and enterprising is very evident. He added largely, by purchase, to the lands given him by his father, and had become proprietor of a saw-mill and corn-mill at Lyme. He died intestate, and his widow, Sarah, administered on his estate. Sarah Rogers now carries forward the suit in which her husband was engaged. The court appears not unfavorable to her presentation of the case; but, on account of a neglect on her part in regard to certain technicalities, the trial comes to a pause, and, through lack of further action on her part, the case is again decided in favor of Jonathan.
In March, 1697, complaint is made to the Governor and Council that John Rogers and William Wright, who were “to be kept close prisoners,” are frequently permitted to walk at liberty, and the complainants (names not stated) declare their extreme dissatisfaction with the jailer and any that connive with him in this matter. It is ordered that said persons be hereafter kept close prisoners, and that the jailer or others who disobey this order be dealt with according to law. Has John Rogers made such friends with the prejudiced and cruel jailer of 1694? Even so (see [Part I., Chapter IV.], for testimony of Thomas Hancox, and [Part I, Chapter II.], for scourging of John Rogers at Hartford and part of same jailer in this abuse).
In 1697, the General Court appoint a committee to revise the laws of the colony and certain “reverent elders” to advise the persons chosen in this affair,[[83]] and also “to advise this court in what manner they ought to bear testimony against the irregular actions of John Rogers in printing and publishing a book reputed scandalous and heretical.”
John Rogers, Jr., is now twenty-three years of age, a young man of brilliant parts and daring courage. Since he is the printer and circulator of this book, he is probably also its author. In this same month of May, “John Rogers, Jr.,” is “bound in a bond of £40” “to appear at court” (Superior) “to answer what may be objected against him for bringing a printed book or pamphlet into this colony which was not licensed by authority, and for selling the same up and down the colony, as also for other misdemeanors”—the nature of the latter not indicated. No complaint being presented against him, he is dismissed.