Mary, the second wife of John Rogers, was, a number of years since, married to Robert Jones of Block Island.[123] It is now fifteen years since John Rogers took her for his wife and twelve years since their enforced separation. He has recently become attached to an estimable widow, by the name of Sarah Cole, of Oyster Bay, L.I., a member of the Quaker Society of that locality. Although favorable to his suit, she is yet inclined to hesitate, on account of rumors that have been circulated in regard to his separation from Mary. In his prompt, straightforward way, he desires her to accompany him to Block Island, to learn from Mary herself if she has anything to say against him. This request is so reassuring, that the publication of their marriage intentions takes place at New London, July 4, 1714 (“Hempstead Diary”), after which they visit Mary at her home on Block Island. Mary gives Mrs. Cole so favorable an account of John Rogers and the treatment she herself received from him, that the ceremony is performed by Justice Wright before they leave the island.
[There is evidence, from the court records and testimony of Peter Pratt,[124] that this wife, Sarah, was of attractive personality, also that she was a zealous religious co-worker with her husband, and that they lived happily together at Mamacock, with John, Jr., and his family and the two children of Mary.]
One of the spasmodic attempts to secure more strict enforcement of ecclesiastical laws is instituted about this period. Edicts have been issued by the General Court charging the various officials to observe greater stringency in the execution of all these laws. That this sudden and severe pull on the rein does not occasion a general and continued uprising on the part of the Rogerenes, is only explainable on the supposition that the first attempt to lay hands on them anew having brought forth the countermove, the authorities have thought best to desist from further serious molestation. The particulars of this countermove are as follows:—
April 22, 1716, there is an entry into the Congregational meetinghouse by John Rogers and his wife Sarah, John Bolles and his wife Sarah, John Culver and his wife Sarah, and several others, names not given. The cause of the disturbance is, as usual in affairs of this kind, studiously ignored on the court records; but evidently—as afterwards indicated—this entry, with scriptural testimony not revealed, was occasioned by the breaking up of Rogerene meetings by the town authorities, with the accompanying feature, a church-party mob. As has been seen, the Rogerene meetings, not being among those allowed by law, can at any time be broken up at the pleasure or caprice of the authorities, and their continued existence has depended, not upon the willing forbearance of the ecclesiastical rulers, nor, to any really saving extent, upon the public sympathy enlisted in their favor; but chiefly upon that formidable reserve power—the entrance into the meeting-house, with scriptural testimony.