2 History of Hingham. 



During the few years immediately succeeding 1635 settlers came 

 in quite respectable numbers to Hingham ; and there is every rea- 

 son to suppose the church was in a prosperous condition. 



Nov. 28, 1638, Mr. Robert Peck was ordained Teacher of the 

 church. In the " Peck Genealogy," by Ira G. Peck, we find the 

 following account of him : — 



" Rev. Robert Peck was born at Beccles, Suffolk County, England, in 

 1580. He was graduated at Magdalene College, Cambridge; the degree 

 of A. B. was conferred upon him in 1599, and that of A. M. in 1G03. He 

 was set apart to the ministry, and inducted over the church at Hingham, 

 Norfolk County, England, Jan. 8. 1605, where he remained until 1G38, 

 when he fled from the persecutions of the church to this country." 



He was a talented and influential clergyman, a zealous preacher, 

 and a non-conformist to the superstitions, ceremonies, and cor- 

 ruptions of the church, for which he was persecuted and driven 

 from the country. Brook, in his " Lives of the Puritans," givea 

 many facts of interest in relation to him. In particular, giving 

 some of the offences for which he and his followers were perse- 

 cuted, he says : — 



" For having catechised his family, and sung a psalm in his own house 

 on a Lord's day evening, when some of his neighbors attended, his lord- 

 ship (Bishop Harsnet) enjoined all who were present to do penance, 

 requiring them to say, ' I confess my errors,' etc." 



Those who refused were immediately excommunicated and re- 

 quired to pay heavy costs. This, Mr. Brook says, appears from 

 the bishop's manuscripts under his own hands. He says : " He 

 was driven from his flock, deprived of his benefice, and forced to 

 seek his bread in a foreign land." 



He arrived here in 1638. In relation to his arrival the town 

 clerk of Hingham here says : — 



" Mr. Robert Peck, preacher of the gospel in the town of Hingham, in 

 the county of Norfolk, old England, with his wife and two children and 

 two servants, came over the sea and settled in the town of Hingham ; and 

 he was a Teacher of the Church." 



Mr. Hobart, of Hingham, says in his Diary that he was ordained 

 here Teacher of the church, Nov. 28, 1638. His name frequently 

 appears upon the records of the town. He had lands granted 

 him. His family consisted of nine children. He remained here 

 until the long Parliament, or until the persecutions in England 

 ceased, when he returned and resumed his rectorship at Hingham. 

 Mr. Hobart says he returned Oct. 27, 1641. He died at Hing- 

 ham, England, and was buried in his churchyard there. 



Cotton Mather, in his " Magnalia Christi Americana," has the 

 following: — 



