CONGREGATION ALISTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
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��by entrenchments and flankers, the re- mains of which we saw a few years ago, and probably they are still seen. These were for a defence from Indian attacks. We have never been able to learn what kind of a building this was, nor its di- mensions. Whether it was of logs or a framed structure we do not know. It was standing in a ruinous condition in 1720, eighty-seven years after its erection. But about twenty years previous to that date, the second house for the Society, (Congregationalists), had been erected at " Pine Hill," on land now a part of "Pine Hill Cemetery." It was nearly north of the tomb of the dishing family. The church was organized in 1638. Whether it was called Congregational or not, it was so to all intents, and is now 23S years old. There is but one older in the State which will now be noticed. Hampton was settled in 1638. A church had been organized in 1835 or 1S36, in Lynn, Mass., separate from the one al- ready there. Some conflict existed be- tween the two, and this second church, with its minister and some other persons, came to Hampton, as the first settlers. The minister was Rev. Stephen Bachiler. (We preserve his spelling of the name.) He was in some sense the father of the town, and was the progenitor of a very large part of the great Bachelder family in our country. Mr. Bachiler continued pastor of the Hampton church about three years, afterwards returned to his native country, England, and died at the age of about one hundred years. There were some shades over his moral character while at Hampton, for which it is trusted he made amends by penitence and a good life. His immediate successors in the pas- torate at Hampton were Revs. Timothy Dalton, a native of England, John Wheel- wright, a native of Salely, England, and Seaborn Cotton, born at sea while his pa- rents were on the passage to this country. The meeting-house at Hampton was built of logs, and was not far from where the Academy stands. The log meeting- house was not, however, occupied very long, as not many years later, a larger house was erected. A third, quite large, was built in 1675. After 1710, the fourth house of worship was erected. This had
��two tiers of galleries, one above the oth- er. All these church buildings stood near the place of the Academy. About 1740, the celebrated Whitefield visited the place, and preached to a very large assembly in the open air near the church, as that would not hold the people.
The next church organization was at Exeter. The place was settled in 1638, the same year as Hampton, and a church was formed, consisting of eight members. The origin of this settlement and of this church will be given in brief. Rev. John Wheelwright came over from England to Boston in 1636, where he and his wife united with the church, which was then the only one in that place. In December following, on the occasion of a Fast, he preached a sermon that gave offence, as it was thought to reflect on ministers and civil officers, and for this he was banish- ed from the Colony. In 163S, with a few of his friends and adherents, he came to what is now Exeter, and commenced set- tlements. We have the authority of the late Judge and Governor, Jeremiah Smith of Exeter, for saying the party which first came were about four days on the way, not to say road, for the most part of the whole region between Boston and Exeter was an unsettled wilderness. Mr. Wheelwright had purchased lands of the Indians, and Squamscot Falls, where there have been mills pei-haps ever since, and near the present Factory, were first settled. The particular seat of the first operations was in the northwest part of the present compact part of the town, and not far from the present jail. There, near or on a small elevation now called "Meeting House Hill," their first house of worship was built. Its dimensions were twenty feet square. Afterwards there was an addition of what was called a "lean-to." .
After Mr. Wheelwright had preached about three years, the New Hampshire Colony was united in government to Mas- sachusetts, which brought the pastor of this church under the jurisdiction of that Colony, from which he had been ban- ished ; so he left, and went to Wells, Me., from which place he afterwards came to Hampton, as has been named, the sen- tence of his banishment having been re-
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