Education. 153 



dommonincaltf) of ilHassacfjusetts. 

 In the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two. 



AN ACT 



TO INCORPORATE THE HINGHAM PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General 

 Court assembled, and by the authority of the same , as follows : 



Section 1. Calvin Lincoln, Solomon Lincoln, Ezra Stephen- 

 son, Fearing Burr, Jonathan Tilson, Quincy Bicknell, George 

 Hersey, William Fearing, 2d, Elijah Shute, Amasa Whiting, 

 David Whiton, Arthur Lincoln, Thomas S. [T.] Bouve, Albert 

 Fearing, Lincoln Fearing, their associates and successors, are hereby 

 made a corporation by the name of the Hingham Public Library, for the 

 purpose of maintaining a public library in Hingham ; with all the powers 

 and privileges, and subject to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities set 

 forth in all general laws which now are or hereafter may be in force 

 applicable to such corporations. 



Sect. 2. Said corporation may hold real and personal estate for the 

 purposes aforesaid to an amount not exceeding one hundred and fifty 

 thousand dollars, exclusive of books, papers, collections in natural history, 

 and works of art. 



Sect. 3. The members of said corporation shall not be less than ten or 

 more than fifteen in number, and all vacancies occurring therein may be 

 filled at such times and in such manner as the corporation may determine. 



Sect. 4. Said corporation may receive and hold for the purposes 

 aforesaid, any grants, donations, or bequests, under such conditions and 

 rules as may be prescribed in such grants, donations, or bequests ; provided, 

 the same are not inconsistent with the provisions of law. 



Sect. 5. Said corporation shall have power to adopt proper regulations 

 for the use and management of the Library, and so long as it shall allow 

 the inhabitants of Hingham free access to and use of its library, said town 

 may annually appropriate and pay to said corporation money to aid in 

 supporting the same. 



Sect. 6. This act shall take effect upon its passage. 



From the purchase of books through the gift of Mr. Fearing, 

 and from donations by other public-spirited citizens several thou- 

 sand volumes were collected together. The building and its con- 

 tents, including the early records of the Trustees, were totally 

 destroyed by fire January 3, 1879. The present more commodious 

 building was immediately erected upon the same site, and opened 

 to the public April 5, 1880. Its shelves are well filled with stand- 

 ard literature, books of reference, and popular works. 



Among other valuable donations to the library, since the erec- 

 tion of the new building, may be mentioned one of one thousand 



