2 74 HISTORY OF C OH ASSET. 



inhabitants of said District of Cohasset, requiring him to call a 

 meeting of said inhabitants, in order to choose such ofificers as 

 towns are by law empowered to choose in the month of March 

 annually; and at said meeting such persons, inhabitants in said 

 District shall be allowed to vote, and only such, as would have 

 been allowed to vote in the choice of town officers in the said 

 Town of Hingham if this act had not been made. 



April 26th, 1770 — This bill having been read three Several 

 times in the House of Representatives, passed to be enacted. 



THOMAS GUSHING, Speaker. 



April 26, 1770 — This bill having been read three several times 

 in the council — passed to be enacted. 



A. OLIVER, Sec'y. 



April 26, 1770. By the Lieutenant Governor I consent to the 

 enacting of this Bill. 



J. HUTCHINSON. 

 A true copy. 



Attest, ALDEN BRADFORD, 



Secy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 



Pursuant to this legislative act, Benjamin Lincoln gave 

 notice immediately for a meeting to be held in the Co- 

 hasset meeting-house on the Common. 



The sturdy citizens met gladly on May 7, 1770. The 

 work of twenty years was accomplished. Just one hun- 

 dred years had passed since the lands were divided, fifty- 

 three years had rolled along since they had become a 

 precinct, and now was held on the seventh day of May, 

 1770, their first town meeting in the church on the Com- 

 mon, with the man for moderator who had borne the brunt 

 of the fight, Deacon Isaac Lincoln. 



Although technically only a district, it is plain that we 

 were practically a town. In fact, the Legislature so inter- 

 preted the matter officially when in the year 1786 they 

 passed the general act that all districts incorporated be- 

 fore 1777 should be towns. 



