It is said that
timbers from the first were used in the construction of the present
house. The brass tablet on its wall states:--
"This Church was gathered in 1635. The frame of this Meeting-house was
raised on the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, and twenty-eighth days of
July, 1681, and the house was completed and opened for public worship
on the eighth of January, 1681-2. It cost the town L430 and the old
house."
In 1881 there were elaborate commemorative services on the occasion of
the 200th anniversary of the building of the meeting-house.
The history of this parish has been remarkable for the long terms of
service of its ministers. During the two hundred and fifty years of its
existence it has had but eight ministers, of whom the eighth and the
present one is the Rev. H. Price Collier. The denomination is Unitarian.
Originally a Puritan church, it was liberalized under the sixty-nine
years' ministry of Rev. Ebenezer Gay, D.D., extending from 1718 to 1787.
Of this able divine many interesting anecdotes are told. He was a
powerful leader of religious thought, who "sounded almost the first
evangel of that more liberal faith which found its highest expression in
Channing, and its fruit in the absolute religious freedom of to-day.
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