Browse the Boston, Mass. Church records collection

This small collection of five volumes of Boston church records includes four volumes of sermons and sermon notes.

Two of these volumes contain sermon and sermon notes for the Old South Church: one contains notes for the year 1684 for sermons delivered by Samuel Willard (1640-1707), Joshua Moody (1633-1697), James Allen (1632-1710), and Samuel Nowell (1634-1688); the other contains the text of sixteen sermons evidently delivered by John Bacon (1738-1820) in the period 1772-1775.

A third volume contains notes on sermons delivered in Boston and vicinity in the period 1690 to 1694. There are notes on sermons delivered by, among others, William Brattle (1662-1716), Daniel Gookin (1650-1717), Increase Mather (1639-1723), Samuel Moody (1669-1729), and Samuel Willard. 

A fourth volume contains notes on sermons delivered in Boston in 1723. There are notes on the preachings of Joseph Sewall (1688-1769), Thomas Prince (1687-1758), Samuel Checkley (1795-1769), William Cooper (1694-1743), Joshua Gee (1698-1748), the Reverend Mr. Smith, and John Webb (1687-1750).

The fifth volume consists of records of pew rentals for the West Church on Lynde Street in Boston. The period covered in the volume is 1777 to 1781, and includes pew rentals for Benjamin Edes, John Thet, Bassenger Foster, and Paul Revere.

Materials in this collection have been digitized in partnership with the American Antiquarian Society and have been made available through our New England's Hidden Histories project.