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.” “Is it possible, Mary, that you take this man, so much older than yourself, for your husband?” “Yes,” said she doggedly, “I do.” “Then,” said the minister solemnly, “I pronounce you, according to the law of this colony, man and wife.” “Ah, Gurdon,” said Rogers, “thou art a cunning creature!” Had this historian never read the famous history of the place in which she dwells, written by Miss Caulkins, wherein is proof absolute that John Rogers and Mary Ransford had not the honor of being married by Governor Saltonstall? Although Miss Caulkins herself gives a version of this story (History of New London), she calls attention to the fact that it could not be true, as proven by court records. _Version No. V._ (_In one of the editions of Barber’s “Historical Collections of Connecticut.”_) It is here stated that “one day as Gov. Saltonstall was sitting in his room, smoking his pipe,” a man by the name of Gorton came in with a woman, and announced that he had taken her for his wife without any ceremony, upon which the governor, “taking his pipe from his mouth,” went through the usual form in these anecdotes, whereupon Gorton exclaimed: “Thou art a cunning creature!” Barber gives this anecdote among his various false statements regarding the Rogerenes. _Version No. VI._ (_A solitary anecdote found in the Chicago Tribune of April, 1897, showing how dragon’s teeth will spring up again and again, in one form or another._) Alexander Bolles, one of the early itinerant preachers, who preached in three States among the Alleghany Mountains, says the _Argonaut_, was much tormented by the influence of one John Rogers, a Jerseyman, who openly taught atheism and the abolishment of marriage. On one occasion, while holding a meeting in the woods of Virginia, a young man and woman pushed their way up to the stump which served as a pulpit. The man, interrupting the sermon [of course], said defiantly:— “I’d like you to know that we are Rogerenes.” The old man looked at him over his spectacles and waited. “We don’t believe in God, nor in marriage. This is my wife because I choose her to be; but I’ll have no preacher nor squire meddling with us.” “Do you mean to tell me,” thundered Father Bolles, “that you have taken this girl home as your wife?”