CHAPTER X. 



THE AUTONOMY OF A PRECINCT. 



ONE marked difference between the commencement 

 of Hingham and that of Cohasset was in the matter 

 of self-government. 



Hingham ruled itself, chose its minister, and established 

 its own school from the beginning. Not so with Cohasset. 

 Two generations of children grew up in the first homes of 

 this place before the authority was gained to have a 

 church and school of their own. The struggles to free 

 themselves from the control of Hingham and to gain the 

 autonomy of a precinct are worthy of a careful narrativQ. 



Previous to the year 1700 there were perhaps only a 

 half-dozen homes in all this region, and their isolation 

 from the school and church privileges of Hingham was a 

 serious one. 



- The girls grew up in the homes without learning to 

 read or to write. Common drudgeries of the farm were 

 their only teaching. This, however, might he endured on 

 behalf of the girls, for those were the times when women 

 were neglected ; but it was unbearable to have sons unable 

 to read or to write. These families paid taxes for the 

 town schoolmaster, but their boys could not travel so far 

 to receive his instruction and they came to be " back- 

 woods " boys. By some hook or crook they learned, how- 

 ever, the rudiments, for they could sign their names to 

 deeds when the time came in after years to transfer 

 property. "" 



The same weary miles kept our fathers from the privi- 

 leges of church. Yet their taxes had to be paid, and 

 when the present Hingham meeting-house was built, 168 1, 

 the share of the burden falling upon Cohasset shoulders 



