Chapter V: )

John Rogers asks to be tried by a jury, choosing the one then sitting, but Judge Saltonstall denies him trial by jury,—John Rogers has too many friends in these parts. There must be no means of escape for the opponent he has so often bled before, and would fain bleed to the death. He pronounces judgment in a fine of £20 and costs of prosecution, and a bond of £100 “for good behavior” until the March session of the same court, with imprisonment at prisoner’s expense,—unless he give surety for the bond, which Gurdon Saltonstall well knows he will not do, thereby to acknowledge that he has been “misbehaving” himself. All this is (by the court record) because John Rogers “falsely and slanderously declared in court that the sentence of said court against himself and John Jackson was ‘rebellion against her Majesty.’”

They examine the deeds to find suitable land to take in execution for this fine of £20, and discovering such land, by Upper Alewife Cove, that was sold to “John Rogers,” they proceed to claim it for the Colony of Connecticut. John, Jr., in vain assures them that he himself bought this land, with his own money, and it is also in vain that he presents the original deed, in the copying of which, upon the town records, the clerk omitted the word Jr. Nor will his father’s after affirmation in court that he himself made out this deed, and wrote the Jr. therein, secure its release. Moreover, as John Rogers himself declares (Part I., Chapter VI.), they kept the original deed presented in proof, and, after John, Jr., had paid them their price for the redemption of this land, viz., £20—as proven by court record—they took this very land again for another fine of £20.[113] Here are indications of the bitterest venom on the part of those in power, at this period, yet no complaint on the records regarding “servile labor, etc.,” or baptisms, or “blasphemy,” or any other nonconformity.

By these signs it may be judged that never was the influence of John Rogers more feared than at this very period, yet never also were the authorities more cautious regarding complaints and actions against him on avowedly ecclesiastical grounds.

Footnote 113:

Why seizures at this time are confined to this piece of land, can
only be conjectured. At this date, the Mamacock land still lay
under the attachment of the new executor, James, Jr., and so was
safe from this sort of seizure. The attachment by James, Jr., was
evidently a mere blind, and it served a double purpose.