THE AUTONOMY OF A PRECINCT. 1 95 



on until April, 17 19, when they voted to have a fast all 

 day, the third Thursday of the month, in solemn prepara- 

 tion for the responsible act of calling their first minister 

 to settle among them. They voted to give him, according 

 to the ancient custom, a bonus, which should be one hun- 

 dred pounds, for settling among them, besides an annual 

 salary of one hundred and ten pounds. 



But they postponed the choice of their minister until 

 June of that year, when eleven votes were cast for a Mr. 

 Pierpont and one for Mr. Spear. Mr. Pierpont, however, 

 did not accept his call. 



The young men who were being educated for the minis- 

 try were to be found in those days at Cambridge. Har- 

 vard College had been for nearly one hundred years true 

 to the purpose of its founders — that of furnishing an 

 educated ministry. 



From this college, on many Saturday mornings, some 

 one of these young preachers might be seen starting upon 

 horseback towards the little precinct Cohasset. Other 

 preachers who happened to be pulpit free were sometimes 

 employed ; but that orthodox college at Cambridge was 

 the main source of supply. 



The fee which was paid for these pulpit services was 

 " thirty shillings per day for the minister that should come 

 from Cambridge, if he could not be had under."* 



The person who boarded the minister and kept his 

 horse was paid from the treasury. Now this treasury was 

 remarkably full for so poor a community. There was no 

 evidence that the people shirked their religious responsi- 

 bility, as the mother town had feared they might do. 



Before they became a precinct their total ministerial 

 and school taxes were only ninety dollars ; but now they 

 poured into their church treasury each year four hundred 

 dollars or more. 



Such a tax levied upon their property by their own 



* Vote of May 30, 1720. 



