The Rogerenes: some hitherto unpublished annals belonging to the colonial history of ConnecticutBolles, John R. (John Rogers)
History
The Rogerenes: some hitherto unpublished annals belonging to the colonial history of Connecticut
Bolles, John R. (John Rogers)
Rogerenes -- History
It is surprising to note how many of the dwellers on State Street,
in New London, have been, and are, of Rogerene descent. Even the
agent from Washington employed by the government to select a lot on
that street for the new postoffice, and other public uses, was a
descendant of John Rogers.
Instead of a “small remnant,” the words of Scripture would be much
more appropriate:—
“There shall be a handful of corn in the earth, on the top of the
mountain, and the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.”
Here the writer may be indulged in a little pleasantry, and hopes
the reader will not regard it as ungermane to the subject.
As we throw our searchlights upon the past, we are pleased to note
that the lot on which the First Congregational Church now stands was
formerly owned by Stephen Bolles (grandson of John Bolles) and then
called Bolles Hill.[26] It was purchased from him in the year 1786,
by “The First Church of Christ,” and a meeting-house built thereon;
Stephen Bolles contributing one-third of the price of the lot
towards its erection. At and after this period, it would seem that
the church was more lenient toward the Rogerenes; although they were
not permitted to enter into full enjoyment of equal religious
liberty until 1818, when the New Constitution spread its broad ægis
over all alike, to the consummation of which glorious end, the
descendants of the pioneers in the Rogers movement acted such an
efficient part.
Thus, the First Congregational Church, leaving the spot where had
been enacted so much injustice towards the dissenters, planted
itself on Bolles Hill, where the fresh breezes of liberty seemed to
give it a higher and a purer life, reminding us of the old saying,
“If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the
mountain.”
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Footnote 26:
Not to be confounded with Bolles Hill where Joshua Bolles resided,
which is a mile and a half from above location.
A fine granite structure now stands upon the old hill. May all its
future utterances be worthy of its foundation. Long may it live to
make the _amende honorable_, till the brightness of its future glory
shall hide the shadows of the past. None will be more ready to
publish its praises than the numerous posterity of the persecuted
Rogerenes, remembering the motto, “To err is human, to forgive
divine.”
We will close this chapter with a poem by Mary L. Bolles Branch, one
of her earlier productions which has been widely circulated in this
and other countries. Is not the same oftentimes true of character;
hidden long in obscurity under masses of prejudice and scorn, yet
destined, some day, to be presented, in all its lines of beauty, to
the gaze of men?
THE PETRIFIED FERN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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