Note 80 — Chapter V
Reading edition
Miss Caulkins says regarding this burning of the meeting-house: “It was supposed to be an act of incendiarism, and public fame attributed it to the followers of John Rogers. Several of these people were arrested and tried for the crime, but it could not be proved against them, and they may now without hesitation be pronounced innocent. Public sympathy was enlisted on the other side, and had they committed a deed which was then esteemed a high degree of sacrilege, it is difficult to believe they could have escaped exposure and penalty.”