1 94 HIS TORY OF COHA SSE T. 



directions, and the first meeting of the precinct was duly 

 called. It convened on the fourteenth day of the next 

 July. 



Daniel Lincoln was chosen the first moderator, and 

 Thomas James, clerk. 



John Orcutt, Joshua Bates, and Joseph Bates were 

 chosen " to warn meetings for the future." 



The place of meeting was doubtless the building upon 

 the plain, for which a permit from the proprietors had been 

 obtained five years before. They had placed it a few rods 

 southeast of the present church on the Common, framing 

 it about thirty-five feet long by twenty-five wide.* 



Tradition says that some of the timbers f of it were 

 cut from trees standing on the plain. Labor and material 

 for the building had to be given by public-spirited set- 

 tlers, for the town of Hingham had no part in it. 



The furniture consisted of a pulpit high up on one 

 side, — high enough for a closet underneath, — deacons' 

 seats or benches directly in front of the pulpit, and other 

 benches, probably without backs, ranging across the bare 

 floor. 



Galleries were put in on three sides, with their floors 

 sloping towards the middle of the room. Windows with 

 small panes of glass let in some light under the galleries. 



Several years after the beginning (August, 1723) some 

 pews with high board partitions were built upon the main 

 floor; but the utmost simplicity ruled everywhere at first. 



A month after the first meeting they held another, at 

 which they voted to raise seventy-five pounds for the sup- 

 port of ministry, and John Orcutt, John Farrar, and Heze- 

 kiah Lincoln were to provide a preacher for three months. 

 At the end of that three months others were appointed 

 to be responsible for the services of a preacher, and so 



* See Rev. Jacob Flint's Century Discourses. 



fSome of them are said to be built into the house on the east side of the Com- 

 mon, which is now the home of Zenas D. Lincoln. 



