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��NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
��Springfield, as it used to come up by Es- quire Jonathan Harvey's in Sutton to the Daniel Woodbury place, thence over, the hill where the meeting-house now is, M and by Little Sunapee pond, and thence over Addison hill, as it was termed, to Springfield.
This year the town first voted for pres- ident of the state, as the governor was called, under the new constitution of t 784, and they all voted for Col. Josiah Bartlett, of Kingston, for president, he having 24 votes ; in 1785, John Lang- don, of Portsmouth, had 25 votes for president.
In March, 1786, the town voted to build a meeting-house fifty feet long, and height and width in proportion. Voted, to set the meeting-house not more than 40 rods distant from the mouth of the Hutchins' road, so called. Voted, Samuel Messer, Nath'l Goodwin and Samuel Brocklebank a committee to pitch the place to set the meeting- house, sell the pews, and go forward with the same as far as the. money that the pews are sold for will forward the building of said meeting-house. Voted, to have a burying-yard near where said meeting-house is to stand. This meet- ing was adjourned several times, and the committee appointed had located the house and sold the pews and pro- vided that those who bought them might pay for the same in corn at four shillings and rve at five shillings per bushel. Voted, to raise twenty dollars for preaching this year, and that Levi Harvey see the same expended, and that the selectmen should settle with Mr. Ambrose and pay any balance due him for preaching out of the town's stock.
In these votes of 1 786 originated the old meeting-house (which was located on the ground which now constitutes the southerly part of the cemetery) and also the burying-ground which adjoined it, and which has since been enlarged and improved. The Hutchins road, re- ferred to in the location of the meeting- house, was the road that led across from the four corners to the other road on which the cemetery is now located.
I find that this year, also, 1 786, a cen-
��sus was ordered by the legislature of the state by a resolution passed March 3d. We find New London responded to this call, which is the first census of the inhabitants of the town that I have been able to find. The return is as follows : The number of inhabitants of New London in 1 786 are as follows :
Males 21 years of age and upwards, 46 Males under 21 years of age, 66
Females 18 years of age and upwards. 46 Females under 18 years of age, 61
��Total, 219
The above is a true account, as witness our hands,
LEVI HARVEY, 1 Selectmen JOHN ADAMS. \ for
JOHN MORGAN, j New' London. New London, June 5, 1786.
In 1787, at the request of many of the people who had come here from Attleborough, Mass., and had there known Elder Seamans, he visited New London and preached here June 24, 1787. That autumn the town,
Voted, To give Elder Seamans a call to settle in this town as a minister of the gospel.
Voted, To give him forty pounds yearly as a salary, three pounds in cash and thirty-seven pounds in labor and grain and other produce that he may want, all to be paid at the common price, and all ministerial privileges in town except one half the parsonage lot.
In February, 1788, Elder Seamans visited New London again and spent some two months there in preaching from house to house and in visiting the people, and it seems that he concluded to accept the call, for in March of that year the town instructed a committee to engage Mr. Seamans' salary to him ; that in paying the part to be paid in corn and grain, corn should be reckon- ed at three shillings and rye at four, and
Voted, To remove Mr Seamans' fam- ily from Attleborough to New London on the cost of the town, and that his salary begin on the 24th day of Febru- ary last and that the selectmen do for- ward the moving of Mr. Seamans' fam- ily.
On the 20th day of June of that year the arrangements for moving had
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