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��town, and leave it for the church, and for voluntary contributions to supply his salary. The committee waited upon the Elder, and he, after due considera- tion, made the town a proposition in writing, giving them a choice of three alternatives, as follows :
i St. That he receive a dismission from his pastoral and ministerial office in church and town, together with such a re- commendation as he brought to them from Attleborough ; that his salary should cease from the date of such dismission, and he to give up said bond when his sal- ary should be paid up to such dismission.
2d. The church and town should wholly surrender, give up and relinquish his ministerial services in church and town, and he would surrender, give up, and relinquish his salary, so that it shall be a matter of judgment and conscience between them, he to serve them as much in the work of the ministry as his judgment and conscience should dictate, and they on their part to communicate of their tem- poral good things toward the support of himself and his family, as much as their judgment and conscience should dictate to them, and that, too, in such a way as they might choose.
3d. But if neither of these offers should prove satisfactory, then he re- quested the town to unite with him in calling a mutual council to look into any matters of dissatisfaction between them on either side, and decide upon the whole whether it was not best for him to ask, and for them to give him such a dismission and recommendation as above mentioned ; and if such coun- cil should be in favor of such dismission, then that they should also settle the conditions, after being informed what the town had done for him, and of his ser- vices in return, whether the town should pay him his salary in part or in full or give him something more, or whether he should relinquish his salary, which shall be then due either in part or in whole, • or shall give the town something more, for reasons which to the council may appear.
It was very evident that it was of no use to seek a controversy with a man
��who was so willing to settle in any way, and the town, by vote, accepted of his second offer, by which the town gave up all claim to his ministerial services and he gave up all legal claim to his salary, and after that his support was derived mainly from the church and from voluntary contributions. The town at the same time voted not to unite with him in calling a council.
In 1797 they also voted that those inhabitants of the town that do not be- long to the Baptist society, so called, have a right to invite preachers of the gospel into the meeting-house to preach such part of the time as shall be in proportion to the interest they own in the meeting-house, and this was so vot- ed for several years. Almost every year there was an article in the warrant to see about finishing the singing pew or to see about finishing off the meet- ing-house, but there seemed a great reluctance to complete the house, and the town refused to act.
Thus we come down to the year 1S00, the close of the eighteenth century. By the census of that year it appears that New London then had 617 inhabi- tants, having gone from 311 to 617, in ten years. But while they had been thus prosperous in that particular, their meeting-house was still unfinished. It was only partially glazed, the gallery was not completed, the singing pew was not built, nor was it plastered or painted at all. A controversy between Levi Harvey and the town had arisen, about his mills, which was still undis- posed of, and many were the articles in the warrants for town-meetings, and many were the special town-meetings called to consider and act upon these two subjects, but the town never seemed ready to finish either the meeting-house or this controversy
Perhaps at this point it may occur to some of you to inquire a little more particularly in relation to the Masonian proprietors, who they were, and who were the original grantees of the land granted as the Addition of Alexandria, afterwards New London, and how was the land divided among them ?
Capt. John Mason, of London, to
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