Rediscover the Meeting House: a partial social historyby Nina Wellford (Rev. 2023)
Welcome to Old Ship Meeting House. Built in 1681, it is the oldest wooden structure in continuous use as a church in the United States. The story of this building reflects the unfolding of American history, and we see parallels to events from that history in the debates about policy and politics and the vision of our town and of our country that we are engaged in today. It’s an architectural principle that form follows function. The Meeting House’s form has changed dramatically over the years, but usually in response to the demands of its function. Following is a social history of the Meeting House, and how that played into each of the renovations that the building has gone through in more than 340 years. There have been surprisingly few for such a long history: we will focus on the major changes made in 1681, 1731, 1755, 1869, 1930, and those of the past ten years. We begin in early Hingham, with the Puritan philosophy that underscored American thought in New England. 1635 – European Colonists For about 8000 years before European colonists arrived in New England, this region was home to indigenous people who had migrated here after the glaciers receded. People of the Massachusett tribe, a subset of the huge Algonquin nation, inhabited the lands around Hingham and inland; the Wampanoag, who aided the Pilgrims in Plymouth, lived just to the south and towards Cape Cod. Over generations, they developed inland winter villages and summer camps closer to the ocean, hunted, fished and cultivated the land for farming. A network of trails criss-crossed the region. However, by the early 1600s when colonists began to settle around Massachusetts Bay, disease and tribal warfare had decimated the Native American population in this region from its peak of perhaps 10,000 people to fewer than 1000. In 1635, the Rev. Peter Hobart and 40 families, or about one half of the town of Hingham, England, joined the colonists who had arrived a couple of years earlier, here in what they originally called Bare Cove. They incorporated as the town of Hingham, the 12th town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their first Meeting House was a crude structure, surrounded by a palisade, built on a low hill in front of where Old Derby (Hingham Historical Society) stands today. The settlers’ Puritan faith, based on ideas supported by the Scriptures, was an exclusive religious philosophy with roots in Calvinism: they believed that there was a small number of elect people who received God’s grace and were saved. The Puritans left England in order to reform the Church of England, whose corrupt and powerful bishops and worldly wealth had led people away from the pure faith of the Bible. Hingham was located on the southern edge of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which included towns that were settled by Puritans and led by Governor John Winthrop in Boston. Just to the south lay Plymouth Colony, settled 15 years earlier by the Pilgrims, who wanted to separate from the Church of England entirely rather than reform the religion. At that time in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the church and the state were one. Only church members could vote or hold political office. And only Puritans could be members of the church. Attendance at Town Meetings and Sunday services was mandatory. Sermons on Sunday were about the text of the Bible, but even back then the ministers used the text to comment on affairs of the day, too. As Harris Danzberger says, “In the 17th century, the word 'church' was never applied to a New England house of worship. They were simply called Meeting Houses, for that is what they were – places for assemblage, as a civic center, a place of worship, and sometimes as a marketplace. Puritans didn’t believe that holiness could be inherent in wood or other building materials. So no Puritan meeting house was ever consecrated. The church was the people within. As one whit put it, “There is no difference between the alehouse and the church until the minister is in the pulpit.” And Rev. Peter Hobart, Hingham’s first minister, set the tone of independent thinking for Hingham ministers through the ages. (In an amazing historical coincidence, our recently-retired minister Ken Read-Brown is a direct descendant of Peter Hobart!). Peter Hobart used church membership to draw parts of the new community together. So, as more non-Puritans arrived in Hingham, he likely realized that some strict thinking needed to change. For example, in a major act of conscience, Peter Hobart went ahead and baptized the baby daughter of a Hingham citizen, Mr. Burton, even though Burton was Anglican. This, and other acts of independence by the Hingham militia, incensed Governor Winthrop, who accused Hobart and the Hingham militia of Rebellion. In the end, Hobart was convicted of disrespect and fined. But Hobart’s acts, and no doubt the discussion that went along with them, helped open the door for a more inclusive and democratic form of government in Massachusetts. 1681 - Building the Meeting House Peter Hobart died in 1679. At that time, the Parish voted to build a new meeting house, since the population of the town had increased in 45 years from 130 to about 750. Also, the end of King Phillips War in 1676 marked the end of hostilities between the colonists and the Native Americans, so there was less need for a fort-like meeting house. Over the years there are many many instances of hugely divisive votes taken by the townspeople of Hingham, and many instances of votes that were later overturned in favor of an exact opposite result. This was one of them. After a couple of years of “violent contest in regard to the placement of the meeting house in which the interference of the general court was required,” it was decided to place it where it is located today, on land given for the purpose by Capt. Joshua Hobart. A committee of three studied all the meeting houses in the area to decide on the design of the new structure. This New England Meeting House style with the square, double-sided hip roof, was distinctive from 1651 – 1712. Our meeting house (still not called Old Ship) was the 58th one built in the Mass Bay Colony (the first one was built in Dorchester in 1631), and the second largest, after Old South Meeting House in Boston. Its original dimensions were 55’ x 45’. Charles Stockbridge, a well-known owner and builder of mills who lived in Scituate, was chosen to be the head builder, probably because of his familiarity with raising such large structures. The frame was raised by the entire town on July 26, 27, 28, 1681. Turnout was so enthusiastic, the selectmen paid for 19 barrels of hard cider to fuel the workers. Because it was the town’s meeting house, the cost of 437 pounds was paid for by assessments on all the adults in town, based on one’s ability to pay. Looking at the Meeting house today, imagine this:
There were 2-story galleries and doors on three sides, and the pulpit was placed on the northeast wall, in front of the cemetery – so parishioners faced East towards Jerusalem, as was the custom. The walls were clapboarded inside and out – not yet plastered. You can see the interior clapboards in the wall cut-away to the right of the main entrance. Windows were large and square. There was no heat, no light. For 150 years, until 1822, the only heat was from footwarmers that people brought with them from home, with smoldering embers for warmth. This in a Meeting House that had been closed all week, often, with no heat at all. It was considered good for the soul. Imagine how smoky it was! There were no box pews: the floor and galleries were filled with backless wooden benches. A committee determined a seating chart for 334 of the 700 people of the town, according to a carefully worked-out social hierarchy. Men sat on one side, women on the other; town leaders and elders sat forward and younger people sat behind and upstairs in the balconies. The only pew was right next to the pulpit, for the minister’s wife and the widow of Peter Hobart. You can see that the seating plan included 12 spaces for “Men servants, Negroes and Indians.” For the English colonists, slavery was an accepted norm, practiced in England and throughout the world. It also fit naturally with the Puritan concept of hierarchy. Until slavery was abolished in Massachusetts 100 years later, in 1783, a number of Hingham residents enslaved African American and Native people. Hingham Historical Society continues to work to document enslaved and free people of color in Hingham in the 18th century. But it is clear that Hingham’s merchants and one or more ministers had household slaves and many other people of color were enslaved by farmers and tradesmen. Town Meeting took place for the first time in the new Meeting House on January 5, 1682. John Norton, who followed Peter Hobart as minister, preached the first service. By then the era of the Puritan fathers had passed. As the region developed and prospered, merchants traded with colonies around the world. As was true of other towns in New England, much of Hingham’s prosperity was dependent on the North American colonial slave-based economy and the Triangular Trade. Hingham merchants built ships and exported lumber, livestock, fish, grain, and barrels, growing rich in the process. As a society, colonists had begun to move from the concept of Commonwealth to privatization of wealth, and away from the purely Puritan faith to more concern with more earthly matters, such as art, comfort and social status. The town’s population passed 1000, and it spread out to the South and east toward Cohasset and Scituate. John Norton died in 1716. Of note: John Norton’s daughter married John Quincy; their granddaughter Abigail married John Adams, 2nd president of the U.S. 1700’s & Ebenezer Gay The next minister, Ebenezer Gay, would serve for 69 years, from 1718 to 1787, when he died at age 90. The 1700's were marked by growth, unrest and division, and as a strong and popular minister, Rev. Gay would help the townspeople weather the storms. Ebenezer Gay was born in Dedham and graduated from Harvard. He continued the philosophy of inclusiveness begun by Peter Hobart – baptizing citizens of all backgrounds, including Blacks and Native Americans. In the early days of his ministry, he and other ministers led the call for inoculations in the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1721 – against the advice of doctors. Due to growth, town government moved to sectional representation, with Town Meeting still held in this Meeting House. In the 1720s, residents of Cohasset who had to travel from at least 5 miles away over rough roads, built their own meeting house. It became Second Parish, and was built in the more artistic style of the time, influenced by architect Christopher Wren. South Hingham residents were upset with the distance they had to travel to the over-crowded Meeting House, and their lack of political representation. It was time for the Meeting house to expand, in an effort to keep the town together under one roof... 1731 - First major renovation
In the wall cut-away by the entry door, you can see the layers of construction: the original interior clapboards of 1681, the first lathe and plaster of 1731, and the top layer with additional insulation from 1755. BUT – South Hinghamites weren’t appeased. In 1742 they formed their own parish and built their own church on Main Street, today’s Second Parish, then called Third Parish, in the same style as Cohasset’s. This Meeting House (still not known as Old Ship) was then called the North Meeting House. In the 1700s, major divisions were occurring in Protestantism, called the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards, as one of the leaders of the emotional revivalist movement, was calling for a return to the Calvinist ways of early New England, and the belief that God will save the select. But Ebenezer Gay became the most powerful spokesman of an opposing philosophy, espoused by the Arminians, which believed that people have a hand in their own salvation through learning and good works and deeds. Although Reverend Gay owned an enslaved person, he opened the church to African congregants, both free and enslaved, admitting them as members, as there were no black churches in New England until after the Revolutionary War. The more open-minded philosophies and practices of Gay and others, with their appeal to reason, ultimately led to Unitarianism. By 1745, theological views had hardened across New England. Connecticut and Western Mass went with the more conservative and evangelical Jonathan Edwards. Eastern Massachusetts and Ebenezer Gay became the center of that more liberal theology, with Arminians as ministers in every shore town except Hull. The Arminians appealed to the educated, socially prominent citizens and the merchant class. They dominated Hingham’s First Parish and felt that the North Meeting House needed to grow even more, to express Hingham’s prosperity and stature. 1755 - Second addition
By then, the American Revolution was upon us. Ebenezer Gay had a deep antipathy to civil disorder. He remained loyal to the crown, and one of his sons fled to Canada as a Loyalist. But it is a sign of the respect and affection that the community held for him that he survived as First Parish’s minister and a civic leader, despite being watched as a British sympathizer. By all accounts, he was a brilliant diplomat, serving until he died in 1787 at age 90. In 1792, we come to another crossroads in Meeting House history. By then town meetings were not being held there (1780), yet its membership still included most of the citizens in town. A series of four parish votes determined the fate of the Meeting House, because it needed a new roof: their first vote was to take off the roof and replace it with “one of proper pitch” (no hip). A few weeks later they voted again, to take it off and replace it with one that a committee would decide was best. The third vote said tear down the entire meeting house and replace it with one in the Christopher Wren style. Finally, several weeks later they voted to rescind all other votes and repair the existing structure in its present form. Yankee frugality ruled the day. The building was first painted then – a yellow-ochre like you see today. Early 1800s – major ideological split leads to New North Church & Joseph Richardson, minister After the Revolution, a major ideological schism split the new United States into two political factions who demonized each other: the Federalists, who believed in a strong central government, and the States Rights advocates, led by Thomas Jefferson. That schism played out here in Hingham as well. It split Hingham’s First Parish in two. Henry Ware had become minister in 1787, after Ebenezer Gay’s death, and continued Gay’s Unitarian theology. Ware had studied at Harvard from 1781-1785, where his roommate was John Quincy Adams. He also was a Federalist, and was welcomed by the Federalist Sacred Circle of prominent people who dominated the politics of First Parish. The First Parish Federalists included Sarah Derby, who would found the first co-educational school in New England, Derby Academy, and General Benjamin Lincoln, who received the sword of Cornwallis for George Washington at the surrender in Yorktown. He then served as President Washington's Secretary of War. When in Hingham, he was very visible in his pew near the pulpit. In 1805, Harvard College invited Henry Ware to fill the chair of Hollis Professor of Divinity, the first and oldest endowed professorship in the U.S. He resigned his pulpit and moved to Cambridge, and helped found Harvard Divinity School several years later. When Ware left, the Jeffersonians (states rights advocates) and new industrialists based up the road in Hingham Center saw their chance to promote their own candidate, Joseph Richardson, for minister. After months of political wrangling, that included slanderous testimony about his improper conduct while a student at Dartmouth College, Richardson won the position in 1805. Because of these politics, the Federalists withdrew from First Parish, forming their own Third Parish in 1807 and building New North Church, in the yet-more-modern Bullfinch style. First Parish then became called Old North Church. Just as Ebenezer Gay had served as minister for most of the 1700s, Joseph Richardson would go on to serve as minister for most of the 1800s, from 1805 – 1868. In 1826, while minister, he was elected to Congress as a Democrat and a supporter of General Andrew Jackson for president, in opposition to the Whigs who supported John Quincy Adams. Adams won the presidency. There is no doubt that the back and forth political battles for the Presidency between the Whigs and Democrats played out in conversations at First Parish, helping shape the system of party government that underlies our democracy. During Richardson's ministry, one minor but important restoration took place: In 1822, two stoves were installed, replacing two front pews. The back gallery was rounded in an artistic flourish. The current bell was cast; as the 5th bell, it has lasted almost 200 years. 1869 - Victorian Transformation By 1869, major restoration was in order. General Luther Stephenson, returned from the Civil War, held up a handful of weeds that he said came from the floor of his pew, and demanded that restoration take place. The meeting house was made to fit the popular concept of a true New England Church, at least on the inside.
Throughout the 1800s, the Meeting House did continue to be used for ecumenical outreach. They held mixed-denominational services here, non-liturgical services, to ease tensions with immigrants, and speakers debated philosophies such as Transcendentalism, and the great issues of slavery, education and more. Sometime in the late 1800s, the name Old Ship was first used. The ceiling was still in place, so the shape of the roof was not obvious, but many think that is why it was called Old Ship. 1930 – Meeting House restored to 1755 features By the early 1900s, Americans experienced a resurgence of interest in antiquities and in colonial architecture. In 1923 a replica of Old Ship’s roof timbers was included as the first exhibit in the new American Wing in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Louis Cornish and J. Harry Hooper, ministers at the time, encouraged discussion of Old Ship’s national importance, and, despite the Depression, one benefactor came forward to underwrite a major restoration – Eben Howard Gay, great-great-grandson of Ebenezer Gay. It was a well-studied effort led by Boston architect Edgar T. Walker, of Smith and Walker Architects. They decided to restore the Meeting House to its 1755 appearance, except that they also decided to remove the ceiling. All vestiges of the Victorian era were stripped, and the pulpit meticulously stripped and restored. Box pews were returned from people’s homes, the church’s basement and attic, the Historical Society, bank, etc. Others were constructed to match. You can tell the old pew doors vs. the reproductions: the originals have dark wood and spindles that turn. There was a list of additional repairs that was proposed to be done several years later, but that work was never undertaken. In 1967, the Old Ship Meeting House was designated as a National Historic Landmark, recognizing its importance as an outstanding as pect of AMerican history. . The Parish continued to maintain the building – until 2007, when we undertook the next major restoration project. 2007 to present – structural restoration A historic structures report done in 2007, funded by CPC (Community Preservation) funds, determined that a surprisingly large amount of the structure is original, and all is extremely well-documented. However, paint and plaster were cracking, wiring needed to be updated, beams needed reinforcing, and the security and fire safety systems needed to be modernized. Over the next five years, with the help of a generous National Parks Service Save America’s Treasures Grant that was matched by contributions from Old Ship’s parishioners and the broader Hingham community, plus a grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission, a huge team of experts and volunteers completed a thorough restoration of the shell of the structure, plus modernized its security and safety systems. Throughout the restoration project, the Meeting House revealed many delightful secrets that you can see throughout the building, such as a sample of the 1869 wallpaper behind a plaque on the wall! The preservation team was especially thrilled to find the original 1681 doors hidden within the wall behind the pulpit! In 2013, the north side entry hall was expanded to include the first “privy” ever on site – a green, composting system that finally brings the Meeting House into the 21st century. Most recently, we completed a restoration of the steeple, ensuring that the 1731 weathervane will continue to fly from a solid base. Maintaining the Meeting House is an ongoing task that places us squarely in the company of more than three centuries of caretakers of this unusual and marvelous structure. Its status as a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1967, underscores the importance of preserving it for its place in American history. It is our goal to conserve this unique Meeting House so it may inspire future generations. First Parish, Old Ship Church, a thriving member of the Unitarian Universalist liberal religious denomination, holds worship services in the Meeting House as it has continuously since 1681. Old Ship’s congregation will continue to perform the structural repairs and maintenance needed. But equally, we are committed to making this building open and available to the general public. Currently, many community events take place here, from the annual Lincoln Day celebration to the community Thanksgiving service, Candlelight Concert series, Atlantic Symphony, Unicorn Singers and other concerts, and forums to discuss issues of the day. Many people who are not members of First Parish choose to have their weddings and memorial services held in this special space. It is open for tours; people visit from around the world – perhaps because their ancestors came from here, or their parents were married here, or because they are students of architecture, religion or history. Fifth-graders come for an annual tour, and a new program will see third graders reenacting Town Meeting, voting on warrant articles that they propose. This building represents our town’s heritage, and the evolution of American thought from the time of the early settlers. We are proud to be able to connect it to generations to come. Sources: Meeting House Meanderings, G. Harris Danzberger, 1980 "Our Living Meeting House" Sermon, Ken Read-Brown, 1989 Wayne Erickson, Hingham Historical Society: Lecture: The Role of Hingham and New England in Slavery & the Triangular Trade, 2021 The Old Ship Meetinghouse, DVD produced by Jeff Spencer, 1996; televised on The History Channel, 1998 Not All Is Changed: A Life History of Hingham, Lorena Laing Hart, Francis Russell Hart, Hingham Historical Commission, 1993 Historic Structures Report, Andrea Gilmore, Building Conservation Associates, Inc. 2007 Many pamphlets and articles in the First Parish archives |
ADDRESS
90 Main Street Hingham, MA 02043 MAILING ADDRESS 14 Main Street Hingham, MA 02043 admin@ oldshipfriends.org TRUSTEES Nina Wellford Tom Willson Elaine Gomez Eileen McIntyre Ron Pollara Elizabeth Torrey Beverley Vernon Mary Ford |
© 2011, Friends of Old Ship
This web site design was funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Eastern Massachusetts Preservation Fund.
This web site design was funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Eastern Massachusetts Preservation Fund.