USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Walpole > The story of Walpole, 1724-1924; a narrative history prepared under authority of the town and direction of the Historical Committee of Bi-Centennial > Part 5
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JOSEPH and THOMAS HARTSHORN were broth- ers and grandsons of Thomas Hartshorn, an early settler of Reading. This Thomas, listed as a freeman in 1648,3 was a selectman and prom- inent citizen. He married first, Susanna , who died in 1659; and second, in 1661, Sarah, widow of William Lamson of Ipswich.4 Thomas and Susanna had a son Joseph, born 1652, who
. married Sarah
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-? about 1677, after having
served in King Philip's War. They had several children born to them, of whom one was Joseph born in Reading April 21, 1688.5 The couple then removed to that part of Dedham now Walpole (about 1794) 6 and there another son, Thomas, was born to them, May 8, 1795.7
1 Walpole Vital Records. 2 Walpole Vital Records.
' N. E. Hist. and Gen. Register, III, 191.
4 Gamble, Thos., Jr. Data concerning the families, etc., 1906; Eaton, Lilley, History of Reading. Boston, 1874.
' Reading Vital Rec. " Ante p. 48. 7 Ded. Vital Rec., 25.
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was baptised at Sylehan, England, in 1591. He arrived at Boston with his wife Mary and children June 26, 1727 and settled at Dedham. He married for a second time in 1663 Isabelle, widow of Edward Breck of Dorchester. An- thony (2) died at Dorchester in 1671. The oldest son of Anthony (2) was Anthony (3), who came to Dedham with his parents, married Joanna Faxon of Braintree, Sept. 7, 1647, and was, with his cousin Lieut. Joshua Fisher, prominent in all town affairs. He removed to Dorchester and died there Feb. 13, 1670. His widow died Oct. 16, 1694. The youngest of their children was Eleazer (4), born Sept. 18, 1669 in Dedham. There he married, Oct. 13, 1698, Mary Avery. He died Feb. 6, 1722, and she March 25, 1749. A son of Eleazer (4) and Mary was William Fisher (5) of Walpole, born June 28, 1701. He was married at Medway, May 21, 1729, to Elizabeth Daniell (spelled Danelese in Walpole records). They had 12 children born in Walpole.1
WILLIAM FOSTER. Of this early settler very little is known. Though families of that name have resided in Dedham, Reading,3 Medfield 4 and Ipswich 5 from very early times, William
1 Fisher, Philip A., The Fisher Genealogy. Everett, 1898.
2 Dedham Records, Births, Marriages and Deaths.
' Eaton's History of Reading. + Medfield Vital Records.
' Foster, R. Foster Genealogy. Chicago, 1899.
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Foster's ancestry cannot be traced to any of those branches. His mariage to Huldah Hol- land is recorded on November 30, 1732, and all his seven children were born in Walpole.1 Huldah Holland 2 was a daughter of Nathaniel Holland and Mary White. Mary White Hol- land (who afterwards married a man named Estey) was a daughter of Joseph White who resided in Brookline and died there in 1725. His father was John, the emigrant, who settled originally at Watertown. William Foster died at Walpole, April 16, 1751.
NATHANIEL and JOHN GUILD were brothers, the sons of Samuel Guild, and grandsons of John Guild, who came to America in 1636 from Scotland with his brothers, John and Samuel, and a sister Anne. John Guild, the immigrant, was admitted to the church in Dedham July 17, 1640, and was made a freeman of the colony in 1643. His Dedham home, built soon after 1740, was occupied by his descendants for more than 200 years. He was married April 24, 1645, to Elizabeth Crooke of Roxbury. She died Aug. 31, 1669, and he died Oct. 4, 1682.
Samuel, son of John Guild, was born Sept. 7, 1647. He was married to Mary, daughter of Samuel and Ann Woodcock, on Sept. 29, 1676.
Nathaniel was born in Dedham, November 12,
1 Walpole Vital Records.
' N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., LII, 422.
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THOMAS HARTSHORN, the pioneer, is probably that Thomas who died in Walpole, July 30, 1727, and the Sarai who died Oct. 22, 1727, his wife.1 We assume that his son Thomas is the man men- tioned on the tax list, though why only one should be given when both were apparently residing in the town is something we cannot explain.
JOSEPH HARTSHORN, son of Thomas the pioneer, married Rachel Morse of Sherborn May 17, 1709.2 He died at Walpole Dec. 22, 1758 and she Nov. 14, 1769.3 They had several children, of whom the oldest was Joseph, Jr., born March 12, 1709-10,4 who married Hannah Foster at Walpole in 1731. They had many children.
THOMAS HARTSHORN, brother of Joseph, mar- ried Elizabeth .? The birth of a son, Thomas, is recorded at Dedham, Aug. 30, 1720.5 and they had several children born afterwards in Walpole. The Thomas who died Sept. 5, 1773, presumably was the elder. There is no record of the death of his wife, Elizabeth.
WILLIAM JENKS seems to have spent only three or four years in the town and his name does not appear in the Vital Records. He was presumably one of the family of the name promi-
1 Walpole Vital Rec. 2 Ded. Vit. Red., 247.
' Walpole Vital Rec. 4 Ded. Vital Rec., 38.
" Ded. Vital Rec., 46.
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nent in Rhode Island, where Joseph Jenks, son of William Jenks of Lynn, was an Assistant in the Providence Government.
SAMUEL KINGSBURY was a grandson of Joseph Kingsbury who settled in Dedham and died there in 1676. Samuel's father was Eleazer, born in Dedham on May 17, 1645. He married on October 30, 1676, Esther, daughter of Samuel Jackson of England. He purchased a farm on Dedham Plains, afterwards part of Walpole. Samuel, son of Eleazer, was born November 4, 1690. He married Joanna Guild of Wrentham in 1715 and died in Walpole in 1744.1
JOHN MARSH was a grandson of John Marsh who came from England and was a resident of Boston in 1671 and 1672. He married a Sarah -? and had a son born in Boston Feb. 3, 1671. The latter married Ann Thurogood on March 2, 1692-3, and they had a son John, born Aug. 2, 1696. This was the John Marsh of Walpole who, in 1719, married Martha Hartshorn of Dedham.2
MORSE. All the Morses mentioned on the tax list were related. Ezra, Sr., the most prominent of the lot, was father of Ezra, Jr., and a second cousin (once removed) to Daniel and also a second cousin to Timothy, Jedediah
1 Kingsbury, F. J. Genealogy of the descendants of Henry Kingsbury of Ipswich and Haverhill. Hartford, 1905.
3 Marsh, D. W. Marsh Genealogy. Amherst, 1886; Savage. James. Genealogical Dict. Boston, 1861.
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and John. These last three were brothers, and uncles of Josiah Morse.
The Morses were descended from Samuel Morse of Dedham, England, who came to America in the ship "Increase," Robert Lea, Master, and settled in Watertown. He was one of the twelve original proprietors of the town of Dedham, was the third man chosen to the important office of Townsman, afterwards called Selectman, in that place, and was ad- mitted to the church there on May 30, 1641. Samuel Morse was born in 1587 and died in 1654.
EZRA MORSE and EZRA, JR., were descended from John, son of Samuel. John, born in 1611, had a son Ezra, born 1643, who was in turn the father of Ezra of Walpole. Ezra of Walpole was born January 28, 1671, married a Mary and died October 17, 1760. Ezra, Jr., was born November 12, 1694, and died December 23, 1789.
TIMOTHY, JEDEDIAH, probably JOHN, and also JOSIAH, were all descended from Joseph, son of Samuel, who was born in 1615 and appears to have been the only son who came to America at the same time as his parents. Joseph re- sided first at Watertown, but came to settle at Dedham. He married Hannah Phillips, and of this marriage was born a son Jeremiah, in 1651. Jeremiah, who resided in Dorchester
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and Medfield, married Elizabeth Hammat. He died in 1716. The children of Jeremiah and Elizabeth included Timothy, Jedediah, John, who are on the tax list, and Jeremiah (born 1679, died 1717), who was the father of Josiah.
TIMOTHY MORSE was born December 27, 1687; and resided in Dedham, Stoughton and- Walpole. He married, first, Mehitable Rob- bins, on October 4, 1715, and, second, Mar- garet Brintnall. He died May 19, 1765.
JEDEDIAH MORSE was born in 1700 and mar- ried Hannah Fisher, November 22, 1726. He died April 1, 1780.
JOHN MORSE, probably that John who was a younger brother of Jedediah and Timothy, was born in 1704. He resided in Wrentham most of his life.
JOSIAH MORSE, nephew of these three brothers, was a son of Jeremiah, who resided in Medfield, Medway and Oxford, and Mehetable Cheney, whom Jeremiah married November 19, 1700. Jeremiah died at Oxford, Mass., October 10, 1717, and his wife on October 4, 1727. Their son Josiah was born at Medfield July 1, 1701, and removed to what is now Walpole. He married Mary Robbins on December 26, 1727, and died May 2, 1775.
DANIEL MORSE, the remaining member of the Morse family to be considered, was de- scended from Daniel Morse of Dedham, another
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son of the original immigrant Samuel. This first Daniel (born 1613) had a son Daniel (mar- ried Elizabeth Clark Barbour of Dedham, and died Sept. 29, 1702). The second Daniel also had a son Daniel, who was born in Dedham July 10, 1672. This third Daniel, father of Daniel of Walpole, settled in Sherburn. He married Susannah Holbrook, who died in 1713. - He died at Sherborn, April 4, 1719. Daniel of Walpole was born Nov. 2, 1699, and married first Esther - ? and second, Mary Bullard, on Aug. 26, 1726.1
JOSEPH PARKER was the grandson of Deacon Thomas Parker who came to this country from England in the "Susan and Ellen" in 1635 at the age of 30 years. He first went to Lynn and was made freeman there in 1637. He afterwards moved to Reading, Mass., and lived in the easterly part of the town. He was a selectman, and died in 1683, aged 78. Joseph Parker was born in Reading, November 23, 1688, and mar- ried April 6, 1711, Elizabeth, daughter of Jona- than Eaton. He died Feb. 2, 1752. His father was Thomas, son of Deacon Thomas and his wife Deborah, --? 2
ELEAZER PATRIDGE was a grandson of John Patridge, who went from Dedham to Medfield
1 Morse, J. H., compiler. Morse Genealogy. New York, 1903.
" Vital Records of Reading, Massachusetts, to the year 1850. Boston, 1912; Eaton, L. Genealogical History of the Town of Reading. Boston, 1874.
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in 1653. John had a son Eleazer who was the father of Eleazer of Walpole. He resided in Medfield where he purchased a tract of land in Bellingham. For more than a century it was called Patridgetown, and some of the older inhabitants of Medfield may still know it by that name.
Eleazer, son of Eleazer, was born in Medfield- on March 7, 1673, and settled later in that part of Dedham which in 1724 became Walpole. Three of his children were born in Dedham and the three youngest in Walpole. He died on Oct. 13, 1776.1
WILLIAM PARTRIDGE or PATRIDGE, was a son of William Patridge, brother of the above men- tioned John. William, the elder, lived on North Street, and married in 1654 Sarah Price, who died in 1656, and secondly, in the same year, Sarah Colburn. He died in 1692. His son William-the William of Walpole- was born in Medfield in 1669. He married first Hannah Fisher, who died in 1726, and secondly Militiah, probably the widow of Timothy Hamant. Wil- liam Partridge died in 1750.2
SAMUEL PETTY, PETTEE, PITTY or PETY, was of the third generation of this family in America. His grandfather, William Petty, settled in Wey-
1 Patridge, George H. Patridge Genealogy. Boston, 1894; Suffolk Probate Records, LXXV, 161.
? Tilden, W. S. History of Medfield. Boston, 1887.
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mouth, Massachusetts, in 1638. "William Pitty" was a prominent citizen in Weymouth and as early as 1643 was chosen selectman and served in that capacity until 1661. An early grant of 10 acres was made to him on the east neck of Weymouth. In 1651 and again in 1663 he received lots of land in that town. The Samuel Petty of Walpole was born in Wey- mouth on October 24, 1685. No mention of his wife's name is given. He settled with his grandson and father in what afterwards became Walpole,1 where his taxable holdings were above the average.
WILLIAM, EZEKIEL and EBENEZER ROBINS or ROBBINS were sons of William Robins the pioneer, who died in Walpole, August 18, 1725 .--- The ancestry and birthplace of William Robins is not known, the earliest record being that of his marriage to Priscilla Going on July 2, 1680.2 In Eaton's "History of Reading" it says he married Priscilla James, and probably removed to Boston. In the list of Early Settlers of Reading he is mentioned and also in a list of Freeman, dated April 18, 1691.3 Robins served in King Philip's War, and removed from Read- ing to that part of Dedham now Walpole about 1691 or 1692.
1 Morse, Abner. A genealogical register of the descendants of Several Ancient Puritans. Vol. 2. Boston, 1859.
2 Vital Rec. Reading.
' Eaton, Lilley. "History of Reading."
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WILLIAM ROBBINS of the tax list, son of the pioneer was born in Reading in 1681. He came with his father to Dedham and married Hannah Clap in 1703, He died in Walpole, Jan. 7, 1769 and she May 10, 1761.1
EBENEZER ROBBINS, second son of the pioneer, was born in present Walpole territory May 19, 1691.2 He was married to Mary Fales on - Jan. 12, 1719-20.3 She died June 12, 1729. Ebenezer married Experience Holmes on Oct. 10, 1729. He died July 6, 1762.
EZEKIEL ROBBINS, youngest of the , three brothers, was born in Dedham, Feb. 26, 1793-4 and married Mary Clap on June 7, 1821.' He died Sept. 15, 1772 and she in 1784.
DANIEL SANDERS. The only genealogical record of a Daniel Sanders 5 is of one whose father was Christopher Sanders, who was born in England on October 27, 1628. He came to America and settled in Windsor, Connecticut, later in Rehoboth, Mass. It is said that he was · not a successful tradesman and that he moved about from place to place.
He had a son Daniel born in Winslow, Ct., on October 27, 1678.6 He married at Medfield 7
1 Ded. Hist. Register, 1897. 2 Dedham Vital Rec., 23.
3 Ded. Vital Rec., 43. 4 Ded. Vital Rec., 26, 47.
' N. E. Historic and Gen. Reg., IV, 182; Savage. Gen. Dict.
' N. E. Historic and Gen. Reg., V, 364.
7 Tilden, W. S. History of the Town of Medfield. Boston, 1887.
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on September 12, 1715, Sarah Metcalf. In the Walpole Records there is recorded the mar- riage of Michael Sanders and Azubal Clarke; the records say he was the son of Daniel and Sarah Sanders. It is said that before Daniel and Sarah Metcalf married they lived in Sturbridge.1 This Daniel seems to have been the Walpole Sanders.
SAMUEL SHEERS, mentioned in the Walpole first tax list, was a grandson of Samuel who resided in Dedham and married, first, Anne Grosse 2 of Boston. She died March 3, 1659. He married, secondly, Mary Peacock on July 29, 1663. A son, Samuel, was born at Dedham September 3, 1656, and married Elizabeth Heath of Roxbury, at Wrentham, on October 27, 1685.3 He died on August 11, 1709, at Wrentham. They had a son Samuel who lived in Walpole and married Mehitable Morse on October 26, 1725. He lived for some time in this town and in the records are recorded the births of his children.
JAMES SMITH. In the Dedham Historical Register, Vol. 14, p. 130, appears this query: "Smith. Wanted the date of birth of Lieut. James Smith, who married Hannah Boyden on July 25, 1728; also the names of his parents.
1 Sturbridge Vital Records.
2 Savage Genealogical Dictionary, IV, 67; Dedham Records.
¿ Wrentham Records: N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., XI, 200.
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THE MOSES SMITH HOUSE, Cedar Street, Walpole (about 1750)
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was born March 1, 1651 and married Sarah Adams at Medfield on January 10, 1677-8. He died Feb. 7, 1709-10 and she on Jan. 18, 1746-7.
Their son Ebenezer was born at Medfield, November 24, 1693. He married Esther Clark in what is now Walpole, Jan 23, 1715-16. They had 10 children. Turner was a member of Capt. Thomas Champlin's company at the Siege of Louisburg in 1745.1 He died in Walpole May 6, 1759, and his wife on Dec. 21, 1774.
NEHEMIAH WARD 2 was born at Newton on July 20, 1704. His father was Jonathan, who was born May 22, 1674, married Abigail Hall on December 31, 1700, and died at Newton, July 26, 1723, aged 49 years. His widow mar- ried, secondly, John Woodward, of Canterbury, N. H., on March 27, 1732. Nehemiah was the third child. Nehemiah's grandfather was John Ward, who was born in England in 1631. He came to America and settled in Sudbury with his father, William Ward, the original settler at Sudbury, in 1639. John married Hannah Jackson of Cambridge, then called Newtown, about 1650. His dwelling was constructed for and used as a garrison prior to and at the time
1 N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., XXV, 267.
? Ward, William. Ward Family, descendants of William Ward. Boston, 1851.
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FIREPLACE IN THE OLD MOSES SMITH HOUSE, Cedar Street, Walpole. Now occupied by T. P. Chandler
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Where his war record can be found?" 1 Ap- parently nobody has yet discovered the place of his birth or his parents' names.
There was a James Smith born at Reading in 1690,2 but this James married Abigail -? and Lieut. James of Walpole married Hannah Boyden on July 25, 1728. We know they had a family, for in the Walpole records births of four sons and four daughters are re- corded.
His father-in-law was Captain John Boyden.3 His widow, Hannah, died at Walpole, July 12, 1759, and he died there on Mar. 29, 1755. There is a monument in the old cemetery erected "In memory of Mr. James Smith who died Mar. 29, 1755 ae 49." 4 Lieut. James Smith had a son James who died in action at Crown Point, Sept. 7, 1756.
EBENEZER TURNER was a grandson of John Turner, who settled in Medfield and was made a freeman in 1649.5 John married Deborah -? 6 and had nine children, all born in Medfield. She died Sept. 18, 1676 and John on October 6, 1705.
Their eldest son John, father of Ebenezer,
1 Dedham Historical Register, XIV, 130.
? Eaton. History of Reading, 113.
3 Boyden Genealogy. 1901.
4 Dedham Historical Register, XIII, 34.
5 Savage. Gen. Dictionary.
' N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., VII, 185.
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of King Philip's War in 1675-6. He died at Newton in 1708, aged 82 years.
BERIAH WARE was a grandson of Robert Ware, who came from England sometime before the autumn of 1642. The earliest record in any form occurs on the Dedham records in Novem- ber 25, 1642, when "Robert Ware is Admitted to the purchase of Thomas Eames his housse lott and three acres of land." This house lot was probably at or near Ware's Causeway. Robert Ware had a son Nathaniel who was born on October 7, 1648, and died at Wrentham on September 24, 1724. He had a son, Beriah, who was listed in Walpole's first tax list. Be- riah died on February 17, 1756, at Wren- tham. 1
ROBERT WORSLEY has thus far refused to yield any information about himself to the in- vestigator. The Walpole records tell of the marriage of a Robert Worsley to Sarah Guild, October 10, 1749, but this is doubtless a son of Robert of the tax list. Robert Worsley died in Walpole Nov. 29, 1750; the children of Robert and Sarah were born after that date. The family name disappears from the Walpole rec- ords after 1778. It is not unlikely that Worsley was in some way connected with the famous Mather family of Dorchester and Boston. Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, father of the
1 E. F. Ware, compiler. Ware Genealogy. Boston, 1901.
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celebrated Increase Mather, left remembrances in his will to the "children of my sister, Ellen Worseley." 1 The Worsley's are further men- tioned in connection with the Mather family.2
1 N. E. Hist. and Gen. Register, XX, 251.
2 N. E. Hist. and Gen. Register, XLIX, 507-508; XLVII, 183.
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CHAPTER SIX
MEETING HOUSE AND MINISTER
T "HOUGH at the setting off of Walpole the theocratic government founded by the Puritans no longer flourished in its pristine strength, minister and meeting house still re- mained the centres around which the life of the community revolved. Perhaps no more conclusive evidence of this can be offered than the fact that nearly all the new towns set off from the parent communities, up to and includ- ing the erecting of Walpole, had put forward as chief reason for independent existence their distance from the old meeting house and the necessity of a new one nearer at hand.
In the case of Walpole the chief command placed upon the settlers by the General Court was that they "erect and finish a suitable house for the publick worship of God" within 18 months, and settle a "learned, orthodox minis- ter of good conversation" as soon as possible.1 This was the first great business of the town; and though we find the yellow pages of the rec- ords strewn with solemn votes to "let the Swine go att large this year" and careful note of the 1 Mass. Acts and Resolves, II, 342.
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elections of hog reeves, fence viewers, pound keepers and all the others that go to make up the pomp and panoply of township, these were trivialities in the scheme of things which these humble dwellers in the valley of the Neponset strove to work out for themselves.
. As it was the meeting house that seems to have caused dissension even before the town was made, so it was perhaps the same meeting house that stirred violent political feeling in the earliest days of the town's history. On the very day in which the erection of the town was formally proclaimed the first meeting of the townspeople was held, presumably in one of the dwellings near the old sawmill. Ebenezer Fales was chosen Moderator, Samuel Kingsbury, Joshua Clap and Ezra Morse, Selectmen, and John Hall, Constable. Kingsbury was also to serve as Town Clerk. 1 These were merely stopgap officials, who were to keep things going until spring, when Walpole, in all her newborn glory, should come into annual town meeting and elect a whole battery of officers, as properly befitted her.
On that occasion the old division showed it- self; and though all the dignitaries from Mod- erator to Hog Reeve were chosen with due ceremony (March 8, 1725)? when it came time to swear them into office some refused to take . 1 Town Rec., I, 1. 2 Ibid.
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the oath. The upshot was that the towns- people came to a special meeting March 30, when the legality of the election was questioned. As a possible solution it was proposed that all the officers previously chosen be confirmed by "Houlding up the hand." But when the count was taken, it was discovered that a majority did not obtain, and a new election was held. Ezra Morse and Joshua Clap, previously elected : Selectmen, were left out in the cold, and Peter Fales, Sr., who had been named Tithing-man at the first election, and Thomas Clap, who had been named Constable, were elected Selectmen in their places. Samuel Kingsbury, Ebenezer Fales and Joseph Hartshorn completed the Board-five men to run a town whose inhabi- tants were so few that its very existence had hung in the balance before the General Court.
Now, it is not improbable that the meeting house was back of this row. Perhaps Ezra Morse was bucking up again, and suggesting that a new site be found-one more convenient to North Walpole. But if such was the plan, it was smashed by the refusal of the people to return Morse to office; and when the question was put, at this same meeting of March 30, that the town "Raise money to build a meeting house upon the Place prefixt by the Generall Court which is Neer to Thomas Claps," the vote was in the affirmative. It was decided
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then and there that this meeting house of theirs, for which they had so long battled, should be "40 foot Long and 35 foot Wide."
The story of the building of that meeting house is an epic, filled with humor and pathos. The people meet again in May, wondering if they haven't perhaps tackled something just a bit too big for them. We can picture them debating about that meeting house; and they conclude that if they make it only "26 foot Long & 30 foot wide & 18 foot stud" it will be plenty large enough. Then they make an initial ap- propriation for its erection-£50, to be appor- tioned among the people. "Inhabitants of the Town that Inclind" might work out their tax by labor on the meeting house, the allowance being "3 shillings and Six Pence a Day for a man and Seven shillings a Day for a man and Teame."
All this was so bravely begun. But it was to be years-not the 18 months stipulated by the General Court-before that meeting house was finally finished; many, many years, with heart- breaking discouragements and trials to be en- countered before the end was reached.
The size of the meeting house still bothered them in 1726. They wanted to make it worth the while, to make it something that would be a real pride to them. And so they changed their minds once again and voted to have it "2 foot
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Longer and 2 foot Wider" than previously de- termined upon. This brings it closer to their first dream.
Meanwhile another problem has arisen. They must get a minister to preach to them. And so, in October, 1725, they decided to "Maintain Preaching among us for four months beginning about the midle of November till the midle of March," and they planned to pay the bills by "free Contribution." Joshua Clap, Joshua Fisher and William Robins were appointed to get a minister.
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