126 A PEN-RAMBLE 



as the leader was called, would read a verse or line and 

 then strike sonie symmetrica! movement, when all the organs 

 vocal followed. In 1791, the singing-school was mvited 

 to assist the timers, and their office began to decline. 



No Ruling Eider was chosen after 1787. The deacons 

 number twelve. Dea. William F. Conant, the present 

 incumbent, has worthily and efficiently performed the 

 diities of his office for üfty-two years. He has also been 

 Superintendent of the Siinday School, at intervals, about 

 forty years. The school was established about 1818. No 

 records of its progress or doings have been kept or are 

 now. It is doing a good work, and has a membership of 

 about fifty. 



The chnrch has had five settled pastors. Rev. 

 George Leslie was the first. He was a native of Scot- 

 land, a graduate of Harvard College, a divinity student 

 of Rev. John Emerson of Topsfield, was ordained here 

 when the church was organized, married Deacon Burpee's 

 youngest daughter, had eight children (six sons), removed 

 to Washington, N. H., where he was installed in 1780, 

 where he was ofiered and declined a professorship in 

 Dartmouth College, and where his family sleep, save one 

 son. He was an eminent Scholar, intellectually powerful, 

 and a pious and successful minister. Rev. Gilbert T. Wil- 

 liams succeeded. He was a native of New Jersey, a grad- 

 uate of Dartmouth College, lived in the house Mr. Leslie 

 owned and oecupied, and was dismissed after a useful min- 

 istry of twenty-four years. He settled the next year in 

 West Newbury, where a shock of palsy terminated his la- 

 bors. He died at Framingham in 1824. Rev. Ezekiel 

 Dow was the next pastor. He was born in Warren, 

 N. H., where he now resides. He was installed Christmas, 

 1860, and he closed his pastorate in 1866. Mr. Dow's suc- 

 cessor, 1866-1871, was Rev. Alvah M. Richardson, a 



