Browse the Second Church records in Boston, Massachusetts

The Second Church of Boston was gathered in 1649, the second Congregational church formed by English settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This church was also historically referred to as the Old North Meeting House. Rev. John Mayo was the first minister of the Second Church, serving from 1655 until 1673. Ministers at the Second Church included several members of the Mather family: Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, and Samuel Mather. In 1714, members of the church left to form the New North Church. The meeting house of the Second Church was destroyed by the British during the War of Independence, which caused the congregation to merge with the New Brick Church. In 1970, the First and Second Churches of Boston merged, and today it 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.