Ecclesiastical History. 



35 



not in this town any division of the churches on denominational 

 lines, as was common in other places in the latter part of the last 

 century. 



The meeting-house of the First Parish, or the " Old Meeting- 

 house" as it is now called, was built in 1681. Parts of the first 

 meeting-house were used in the construction of the new one. Its 

 antiquity makes it one of the principal objects of interest in 

 Hingham. No house for public worship exists within the original 

 limits of the United States, which continues to be used for the 





OLD MEETING-HOUSE PULPIT, HINGHAM. 



purpose for which it was erected, and remaining on the same site 

 where it was built, which is so old as the meeting-house of the 

 First Parish in Hingham. 



In 1730 it was enlarged, and again enlarged in 1755. In the 

 latter year the present pulpit was built and placed nearly in its 

 present position. Dr. Gay preached from it for the first time 

 after it was built from Nehemiah viii. 4 : " And Ezra the scribe 

 stood upon a pulpit of wood which they had made for the pur- 

 pose." In the same year the first pews were built, viz. : two rows 

 of square pews all around the house, excepting the spaces occu- 

 pied by the pulpit and the aisles leading from the porches. There 

 was a pew in front of the pulpit known as the elders' pew or seat, 

 and an enclosed seat or pew in front of the elders' pew, facing 



