THE TOWN'S CHURCH AND ITS DIVORCE. 365 



after we became a town we appointed one ourselves, 

 the incumbent for the year 1775 being John Burbank. 



Of many other details of church life we have not room 

 to speak.* The general progress in the quality of worship 

 has been intimated. Also we have noted the tendency of 

 the town to allow its public worship to become a smaller 

 proportion of its concerns. Those who were unwilling to 

 support heartily the religious functions made the taxes so 

 hard to collect that in the year 1792 the assessors were 

 allowed to make a separate bill of the ministerial tax, and 

 a separate collector was appointed to collect it. The first 

 was Jerome Lincoln, and his pay was fourpence on every 

 pound collected. The Beechwood people and those at 

 Jerusalem were unwilling, some of them, to pay for services 

 so far away from their homes, and many of them were 

 absent from the worship. 



Nevertheless, the meeting-house being town property 

 and the place for holding town meetings, they were all 

 concerned in the repairs and improvements of the build- 

 ing, whether they supported the worship or not. A steeple 

 was desired by some to hold a new bell f in 1791 ; but the 

 bell was hung in the old tower, and its first use was to 

 toll the death of Rev. John Brown, October 25, 1791.$ 

 But the steeple came to be built in eight years more, says 

 an old account book of Caleb Nichols, carpenter, at a cost 

 of "four hundred dollars." 



*The following incident of church life a century ago is worth noting : — 



Mrs. Elisha Doane, who had aristocratic tastes, indulged in a beaver poke bon- 

 net with white nodding plumes. Three young ladies with some social ambitions 

 determined to imitate the style, hoping to make a stunning impression some Sab- 

 bath mornmg. But there were several young men in the town who discovered their 

 plans and conspired to humiliate the young ladies. They raised a subscription 

 and purchased one of the monstrous bonnets and easily persuaded a negro serv- 

 ant named Zylph, a public character, to wear it to church. The buxom negress 

 took a conspicuous place in the gallery, and her plumes nodded before the eyes of 

 all, to her manifest delight. But the poor young ladies who saw their own efforts so 

 cheapened never recovered their pride enough to wear their bonnets a second time. 



t Perhaps made by Paul Revere. 



J See Joel Willcutt's diary. 



