The Congregational Church, 1638 - 1963

The unique and most conspicuous building in the early New England community was the "Meeting House". In many towns it still retains that proud distinction. It is a most appropriate name; for the Meeting House was not only the place of worship -- it was the only place for public assembly for all the people.

In Hampton, there have been five successors to the first Meeting House of the First Congregational Church. When Reverend Stephen Bachiler, with his small band of hardy pioneers, came to these shores, their first concern, after securing shelter for their families, was the building of a Meeting House. The spot selected for it is now known as "Meeting House Green", about half a mile from where the settlers had landed in their shallop.

It was a rude shelter with no pretention to architectural fitness or beauty. It has a bell, a gift from the pastor; and in the second town meeting, held in 1639, it was voted that one -- "Wm. Sanborne (with his consent) is appointed to ring the bell before the meetings on the Lord's dayes & other dayes, for which he is to receive six pence per lott for everyone having a lott within the town". The First Meeting House served its purpose for only a few years.

The Second Meeting House was built on the "Green". By vote of the town its dimensions were to be forty by twenty-two feet with studding thirteen feet high, and girt for the windows. There was to be a place for the bell, probably over the porch; for in 1641 at the "Town Meeting", "The Meeting House Porch was by vote appropriated as a Watch House" against the Indians, "until another be gotten". It was several years in building. The funds were raised by a committee which was instructed to use all lawful means to compel contributions from those who refused to pay voluntarily. In 1649, liberty was given to certain persons "To build a gallery at the west end of the meeting-house, provided that the foremost seats should be appropriated to them, for their own use, and as their own property".

There were no pews, only simple, rough seats; and to direct the people what seat each one should occupy -- "All the men sett at the west end & all the women to sett at the east end".

The erection of the third Meeting House was commenced in 1675. The whole male population, about twenty years of age, was commandeered to build it. They worked in groups from the different sections of the town on different days. The work was done during the troubled years of the Indian Wars, and many of the people were called away from home to defend the colony, and those who labored at home did so in constant fear of the enemy; so that slow progress was made in finishing this Meeting House. It was probably occupied for the first time in the year 1680, for at that time the selectmen were instructed to "take down the old Meeting House and dispose of it for the town's use, according to their best judgment".

The fourth Meeting House, and the last built on the site of the "Green", was proposed in the year 1718. The people were evidently dissatisfied with the architecture, or lack of it, of the fomer buildings; for they chose a committee to consider the matter and report to an adjourned meeting -- "what manner of house should be built".

At the adjourned Meeting, it was voted to build a house of specified dimensions so as to improve its proportions and make it "handsomer", -- sixty feet long and forty feet wide, and the studs twenty-eight feet high. Only one pew had been built when it was opened for worship in October 1719, and that lone pew was for the use of the minister's family. Other pews were added at different times. Again the town voted to sell the old Meeting House as "advantagously as they could" but this time "the proceeds to be for the benefit of ye Rever'd Mr. Nathaniel Gookin," the minister.

Due to the Presbyterian schism 1792-1807, the Congregational faction, being in the minority, found itself without a place of worship. For a time, services were held in Capt. Morriss Hobb's house; but, very soon, as the house was too small, preparations were made to build the "Fifth Meeting House". With the people divided into two denominations, the task was difficult. There was constant controversy over the matter of a just division of the Church property between the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians.

A new method of raising the necessary funds must be found, since the town, having built the first four Meeting Houses (and the last still standing and in use by more than half the people), could not build another. So before the new Congregational Meeting House was erected, it was arranged to sell the pews in the newly proposed House to the highest bidders from a plan drawn up by a committee appointed for that purpose. With the money thus secured, the "Fifth Meeting House" was built. It was the first Meeting House owned by the First Congregational Society, Incorporated in the year 1796. This building stood as the Town Hall until it burned in 1949.

In this Meeting House was a fine octagonal pulpit. When the Town took over the building for its own purposes, the old pulpit was taken out, discarded, dumped on the woodpile, and then was taken down to the beach and abandoned on Boar's Head. Some devoted friends of the church rescued it from so ignoble a fate, and had it reclaimed and placed in the Chapel as a relic and reminder of the past. It now occupies an honorable and useful place again in the "remodeled Sixth Meeting House", which was erected in 1843 and dedicated in 1844, and is used as "The Desk" from which the word of God is preached -- a second visible link with the days and personalities of the long past.

Ancient communion silver belonging to this church may be seen in the Historical Museum in Concord, New Hampshire. The antique violincello in the narthex was the first musical instrument used in the church.

The Church is now (1963) in its 325th year of proclaiming the Gospel in Hampton and being a living and vital Christian fellowship.

On the beach also, the people of Hampton have provided that both the Catholic and Protestant summer vacation visitors shall have worthy "Meeting Houses" in which to worship God after the manner of their fathers; for though in "differing phrases we pray" the "Meeting Houses" of Hampton bear witness that the "Faith of the Fathers is living still."