ion.

The first church in Hingham was formed in 1635, on the settlement of the
town, with Rev. Peter Hobart as its first minister.

The first house for public worship was erected by the first settlers of
the town, probably within a short time after its settlement in 1635. It
was surrounded by a palisado, and surmounted by a belfry with a bell,
and was undoubtedly a plain structure, so far as the scanty records give
any light upon it. It stood upon a hill, in front of the present site of
the Derby Academy, in the centre of what is now Main street. But the
chief curiosity of Hingham to-day is the second meeting-house, known as
the "Old Meeting-house." It is believed that no house for public worship
exists within the limits of the United States, which continues to be
used for the purpose for which it was erected, and remaining on the same
site where it was built, which is so old as this. 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.
Well may the Commonwealth cherish this church in high and in sacred
esteem, which, through two such men as Peter Hobart and Ebenezer Gay,
has put, in the spirit of the highest independence, its mark upon the
tablets of civil liberty and of religious thought."

The second parish (Unitarian) at