Browse the First Parish records in Hingham, Massachusetts
The church in Hingham was first gathered in 1635, under the Cambridge University educated Rev. Peter Hobart from Hingham in Norfolk, England. Hobart was minister at First Parish until 1678. The second minister, Rev. John Norton, was a Harvard graduate from Massachusetts. During Norton’s time, the congregation outgrew their first meeting house and began construction on a larger one in July 1681.
The current church is the second meeting house built by the parish in 1681. It is the oldest surviving English church building in the United States that has been in continuous use. Also known as the Old Ship Meeting House or Old Ship Church, the building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark. Today, First Parish is a Unitarian Universalist church.
Materials in this collection have been digitized in partnership with Massachusetts Historical Society and made available through our New England’s Hidden Histories project.
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