EARLY SETTLERS. 



BY JOHN D. LONG. 



Hingham is one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts. There 

 were settlers here as early as 1633. Its first name was Bearcove 

 or Barecove, more likely the latter, in view of the exposure of al- 

 most its entire harbor at low tide, and as appears also in the 

 spelling of the name in the order of the General Court referred to 

 below. * So far as it had any legislative incorporation, it was in- 

 corporated, and this has been the usual statement of writers, Sept. 

 2, 1635, only eleven towns having in that respect an earlier date. 

 Perhaps, however, the term incorporation is not appropriate in 

 this connection, the brief order which the General Court, consist- 

 ing of the Governor, assistants, and deputies, adopted and entered 

 on that day being as follows, — a form used before, and afterwards, 

 in the case of several other towns: — "The name of Barecove is 

 changed and hereafter to be called Hingham." 



Who was the first settler, or at what exact date he came, it is 

 impossible to say. Mr. Solomon Lincoln, the historian of the town 

 in 1827, gives the following interesting facts : — 



•• The exact date at which any individual came here to reside cannot 

 be ascertained. Among the papers of Mr. Oustiing, there is a ' list of the 

 names of such persons as came out of the town of Hingham, and towns ad- 

 jacent, in the County of Norfolk, in the Kingdom of England, into New 

 England, and settled in Hingham.' From this list we are led to believe 

 there were inhabitants here as early as 1633, and among them Ralph 

 Smith, Nicholas Jacob with his family, Thomas Lincoln, weaver, Edmund 

 Hobart and his wife, from Hingham, and Thomas Hobart with his family, 

 from Windham, in Norfolk, England. During the same year Theophilus 

 •Gushing, Edmund Hobart, senior, Joshua Hobart, and Henry Gibbs, all of 

 Hingham, England, came to this country. Cushing lived some years at 

 Mr. Haines's farm, and subsequently removed to Hingham. The others 

 settled at Charlestown, and in 1635 removed to this place. In 1634 there 

 were other settlers here, and among them Thomas Chubbuck ; Bare Cove 

 was assessed in that year. T n 1635, at the May court, Joseph Andrews 



