Abstract Haverhill was first settled by Puritans in 1640. Rev. John Ward was officially installed as the pastor of the First Parish in 1645 and the first meeting house was constructed in 1648. The second meeting house was completed in 1699 and the third was completed in 1766. In 1833 the First Parish became Unitarian and the Congregationalist dissenters formed the Independent Congregational Church and Society which was later renamed to the Centre Congregational Church and Society. In 1859 a large...

Abstract When the western part of Haverhill became too populous for one church in 1734, the West Parish of Haverhill was established by a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts, and the church, initially known as the Third Church, was itself established in 1735. In the first half of the 19th century, the governance of the parish was controversially distributed between multiple denominations, but in 1852 it was relinquished again to the Congregationalists. This collection contains the earliest...