62 



History of H Ingham. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 





METHODIST EPISCOPAL MEETING-HOUSE. 



The town of Hing- 

 ham was included in 

 what was known as 

 the Scituate circuit 

 from 1807 to 1826. 

 From the latter year 

 until 1828 it was in- 

 cluded in the Wey- 

 mouth Society, and in 

 1828 it became a sep- 

 arate society. In 1807 

 Rev. Thomas Asbury, 

 on the Scituate cir- 

 cuit, was the first 

 Methodist minister 

 who preached in Hing- 

 ham. He was an 

 Englishman, said to 

 have been a cousin 

 of the celebrated Bishop Asbury. He married Rachael Binney of 

 Hull, and subsequently removed to Ohio, purchasing land on the 

 present site of the city of Columbus. In 1809, Moses Tower, of 

 Hingham, married Mary Binney, of Hull, who was a member of 

 the Methodist Church, and their house, and that of Robert Goold, 

 were opened to Methodist meetings for many years. Methodist 

 ministers occasionally preached in these houses. One of the Sab- 

 bath appointments for the Scituate circuit was Cohasset, where a 

 house of worship was erected, and where the Methodists of Hing- 

 ham worshipped until 1826, when they attended church services 

 in Weymouth for about two years. 



The following ministers preached occasionally in Hingham be- 

 fore 1828, when, on the formation of a separate society, a regular 

 pastor was stationed here : Thomas Asbury, George Pickering, 

 John Broadhead, Joseph Snelling, Joseph A. Merrill, Benjamin 

 F. Lambord, Stephen Baily, Edward Hyde, Aaron Lummus, 

 Richard Emery, Bradbury Clay, B. Otheman, Orin Roberts, Ben- 

 jamin Hazelton, Jothain Horton, Isaac Jennison, F. Upham, 

 A. D. Sargent, Stephen Puffer, Benjamin Jones, John Adams, 

 Moses Sanderson, L. R. Sutherland, Samuel Norris, Jared 

 Perkins. 



The first class of Methodists was formed in 1818, by Rev. Ed- 

 ward T. Taylor, of Boston (Father Taylor), and consisted of 

 seven members, namely : Robert Goold, Mary Goold, George 

 Lincoln, Abigail Goold Tower, Jane Goold, Mary Goold Pratt, 

 and Isaiah Wilder. 



