Religious authority rebuked

Succession of ministries meets with opposition

When Rev. Parker replaced the first town minister, Jeremiah Cushing, he had difficulties during the Revolutionary War when the British held the town and the inhabitants fled during the visit of the Somerset. The real tragedy came when Methodism in the town rose. A vote was passed in town meeting placing the Methodist minister in control of Rev. Parker's pulpit unless he was able to officiate. A Methodist selectman refused to open the door of the Meeting House and so the town adjourned to the store of Thomas Ryder to transact it's business. Thus, his pulpit, his people, his prestige, slipped away from him. His successor, Rev. Nathaniel Stone, attacked with vigor the problem left by Rev. Parker. He met with refusal of people everywhere to pay the minister's tax assessed by the towns. After the Revolutionary War, taxation without representation in the church became as hateful as it had been in the state.

People revolted from the old Calvinistic theology, from authority of the ministers, and from the taxes, for support of a parish they no longer had. This led to legal conflict, financed by the Independent Christian Society (Universalist) of Gloucester. Expostulations from his people could not prevent him, nor hints to resign move him, so that in 1830 all his hearers deserted him, leading to the closing of the Meeting House and the historic identity of town and parish forever.

When he left and the heat of the conflict cooled, the faithful returned, a new meeting house was framed from the "Old White Oak" and set in a new place, and another parish organized. This was in 1843 and that house is the present structure near Town Hall.