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CHAPTER XIII. 



SEPARATION FROM HINGHAM. 



FOR more than a half-century this community lived 

 as a precinct of Hingham. After obtaining from 

 the Legislature of the province of Massachusetts the 

 authority to hold public meetings and to levy taxes in the 

 year 17 17, they continued to grow in numbers and 

 strength, until in the year 1770 they became separated 

 L from the mother town. 



This period of precinct life and growth is now to be 

 studied. 



The community had several names by which either con- 

 temptuously or cordially it was designated. " Little 

 Hingham " was one sobriquet, East Precinct, Second Pre- 

 cinct, Second Parish, and Hassit were others ; but how- 

 ever it might be named, the community was very conscious 

 of itself. A distinct character had been gained by their 

 persistent courage in battling for autonomy. They were 

 so far from Hingham, that on their occasional visits for 

 trading and other purposes, they were generally known as 

 outsiders. 



In the town meetings they formed a body of men whose 

 interests were so identified that they could be counted as 

 a solid opposition to all measures that did not fairly ben- 

 efit Cohasset. 

 i This sense of solidarity was further developed by their 

 own precinct meetings held in their own church upon the 

 Common. Here they chose a moderator for themselves, 

 a clerk and assessors of their own ; in fact, they did in a 

 small way what town meetings do. Furthermore, the town 

 of Hingham appointed each year among the constables 

 one from Cohasset, who should collect the taxes from this 



