My first connection is to "Dover's powerful Congregational minister John Reynor." The three Quaker women who had come from England to minister to the people of Dover, NH were in frequent conflict with Rev. Reynor and challenged his authority.
After petitioning the local magistrate, Capt. Richard Walderne (Waldron), local constables were ordered to remove "these vagabond Quakers, Ann Coleman, Mary Tompkins, and Alice Ambrose" from their towns. The punishment was to be painful and humiliating: "make them fast to the cart's tail, and driving the cart through your several towns, to whip their naked backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them, in each town; and so to convey them from constable to constable, till they are out of this jurisdiction." This trip was made in winter and over a distance of eighty miles.
My next connection is to John and Thomas Roberts, constables of Dover, who were responsible for arresting the women.
After they were whipped and tied to the cart in Dover, the women were delivered to Hampton and the constable there carried out the order, next it was on to Salisbury, where Sergeant Major Robert Pike refused to carry out the order.
Dr. Walter Barefoot treated the women's torn backs and the women were then taken to the Maine side of the Piscataqua River and stayed at the home of Major Nicholas Shapleigh of Kittery.
Rev. John Reynor (9th great-grandfather), Anna Reynor, Anna Lane, Jemima Foster, Joseph Spurr, Enoch Spurr, Roxanna Spurr, Mary Frances Stanley, Edward M. Carter, T. Richard Carter - my grandfather.
Thomas Roberts (11th great-grandfather), constable, Anna Roberts, James Philbrick, Ebenezer Philbrick, Ruth Philbrick, Philemon Rand, Lydia Rand, Tryphenia Lunt, John Henry Cotton, Francis Llewellyn Cotton, Ray Everett Cotton, F. Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother.
John Roberts (11th great-granduncle), constable
