The
Old North Meeting House (Old Ship Church) is depicted as it was in
1845 with yellow ochre paint, white trim, and green doors and shutters.
The monument to the far left of the painting marks the location of
the original fort used by the first settlers. Their graves surround
the monument. The building on the left side is Willard Hall, which
burned in 1847. Drawing imaginary lines from the opposite corners
of the painting, one can locate the tomb of General Benjamin Lincoln.
On
this particular Sunday it seems the church sexton did not show up;
Parson Richardson is shoveling out. The path to the Baptist Church
has already been cleared, and a saintly parishoner has left food for
the birds in a Hingham bucket. Hosea
Sprague, who engraved several views of the Old Ship Church, was quoted
prior to his death in 1843 as saying "Hingham was a quiet place
50 years ago but for 20 years past my comfort has been very much injured
by the ringing of the Baptist and Universalist bells every Sunday
night and every other night of the week. We have six meeting houses,
five bells and 3,500 inhabitants - 700 to hear each bell."
I
print for the old fashioned religion such as I saw Dr. Gay preach
57 years ago in the Old Meeting House when he was 90 years old and
wore a great white wig. - Quotation
from the Hingham Journal, October 19, 1888, Recollections
of an Eccentric Man by an Octogenarian by Luther Stevenson
