Third Meetinghouse

In 1661 a new meeting house was built on the southerly side of the old meeting house. The 1647 meeting house was allowed to stand until this new one was completed. Seats were assigned to all adults according to social rank and conditions. A bell, probably purchased with the money gathered in 1654, served to call inhabitants together on Sundays and lecture days. Inhabitants living at a distance were not satisfied as they could not hear the bell and the town voted in 1696 to authorize selectmen to “procure a flagg for the meeting house to be put out at the ringing of the first bell and taken in when the last bell is rung.”