Ecclesiastical History. 



49 



THIRD CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY (UNITARIAN). 





THE NEW NORTH MEETING-HOUSE, HINGHAM. 



The circumstances which gave rise to the formation of the 

 Third Congregational Church and Society in 1806 have already- 

 been alluded to. This society was incorporated by an Act of the 

 Legislature, Feb. 27, 1807. The church was organized under 

 the name of the Third Church in Hingham, June 16, 1807. _ The 

 meeting-house was built, upon the same lot of land on which it now 

 stands, at the time of the formation of the society by the proprie- 

 tors, who were incorporated by an Act of the Legislature under 

 the name of the New North Meeting-House Corporation, and was 

 dedicated June 17, 1807. The two corporations exist the same 

 to-day. 



Rev. Henry Colman, the first minister, was born in Boston, 

 Sept. 12, 1785, and was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1805. 

 He was ordained pastor of this society June 17, 1807, and was 

 dismissed, at his request, March 14, 1820, in the thirteenth year 

 of his ministry. He died in Islington, England, Aug. 17, 1849. 

 After leaving Hingham he opened an academy in Brookline, con- 

 tinuing it for a few years, when he became the pastor of the 

 Independent Church in Salem, holding that office from Feb. 16, 

 1825 to Dec. 7, 1831. He then became almost exclusively a 

 farmer, having purchased a farm at Deerfield, Mass. Influenced 

 by this pursuit and commissioned by the State, he visited Eng- 



VOL. I. 



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