Roswell Field

The Bondage of Ballinger Roswell Field

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Excerpt from the book:

"The rambling house, with its chain of gables, its old-fashioned windows, and its covered passageway leading back to the woodshed and the row of outer buildings, was known for many years, and is still known, for anything that has been certified to the contrary, as the parsonage. Certain traditions of the Connecticut Valley have it that when Cromwell was no more, and the second Charles came to the throne, Giles fled from England with Goffe and Whalley, and buried himself under an assumed name among the Massachusetts colonists. Whatever of truth may have been in these stories, they are not mentioned in the family records compiled by the Reverend Jabez Ballinger, who occupied the old parsonage forty years later, and who speaks modestly and joyfully of his descent from "good old Puritan stock." Perhaps it was this very modesty that silenced the Reverend Jabez, for to the good man it might savor of boastfulness that he should parade the military exploits of his ancestors, and dwell with satisfaction on the accomplishment of the sword and deeds of worldly cunning. So he scrupulously contented himself with fighting the Devil as valorously as ever the warlike Giles assailed the forces of the English king, bequeathing the eternal conflict to his son, the Reverend Thaddeus Ballinger, who in turn and the fulness of time handed the spiritual sword and buckler to the Reverend Jacob Ballinger in direct family descent."