were impaneled, and laid out four roads for public convenience, two of them starting from the meetinghouse of 1661, one leading toward Boston and oue toward Taunton, and two others branching off from these two roads, one at Sandy Hill, leading toward Plymouth, and one at the head of Edward Fobes' two house-lots toward the Great Meadows.

First Congregational Society.-The first meeting-house was erected in West Bridgewater about 1660. It was built of logs near the site of Simeon Dunbar's house.

The second meeting-house was erected in 1674, opposite where Maj. J. D. Barrill lives. Its size was forty by twenty-six feet, fourteen feet studs, at an expense of fourscore pounds, not including "the making of gallaries or seating, ten pounds in money, ten pounds in merchantable boards at four shillings a hundred."

The third mecting-house was built on the site of the second building in 1739. Committee of the old house, Nicholas Byram, John Washburn, Samuel Allen, John Ames, Deacon John Willis, and Goodman (Samuel) Edson. Committee of the new one, Jonathan Hayward, Jr., Israel Packard, Thomas Hayward (3d), Ephraim Fobes, and Ephraim Hayward; size of the house, fifty by thirty-eight feet, twentytwo feet posts, covered with shingles; cleven places for pews sold for one hundred and forty-three pounds ten shillings sixpence. A pew was built on the left of the pulpit for the minister's family. Long seats instead of pews in the body of the house, two galleries, one above the other on three sides.

In 1767 a new spire was erected, balcony repaired, and bell purchased. This was the second bell in town; the North Parish had a bell in 1764. This building continued in use for seventy years, till the erection of the fourth house, on land of Gamalial Howard, near the orchard of Jonathan Copeland, 1802. The old church was sold to the town for a town house, belfry removed. The building was taken down in 1823. The first pastor was the Rev. James Keith, who was ordained Feb. 18, 1664, and continued in the ministry fifty-six years. He died July 23, 1719.

"He lived and died," says Mr. Latham, "in a house in this town now owned and occupied by George M. Pratt. It is situated on River Street, between the residence of Mrs. Sarah H. Howard, widow of Amasa Howard, on the west, and the residence of Miss Louisa Perkins on the east.

"The house was built in 1662. It fronted south, was two stories high in front, one story high back side, posts sixteen feet high, fifteen feet wide in front, thirty-four feet deep, with front entry five feet wide;

chamber-stairs and chimney back of front door in the southeast corner of the house, one front room about ten by twelve, with a bedroom back of that, and a kitchen, with pantry, back of bedroom and chimney. In the second story was an entry, a front room, and a bedroom corresponding to the rooms below. No cellar under this part of the house.

"In 1678 the house was enlarged by an addition of eighteen by thirty-four feet to the east side, of the house, two stories high in front, one story high back side, making one large front room, eighteen by eighteen feet, with a bedroom, back stairs, and an enlargement of the kitchen in the back part, the rooms in the second story corresponding to the front room and bedroom below, the back part of the second story of the old and new part of the house remaining unfinished; a cellar under a portion of this new part, with a stone drain across the road to the Town River.

"The house remained in this condition without material alteration for one hundred and fifty-nine years, — from 1678 down to 1837,-when Thomas Pratt, father of George M. Pratt, cut off about fourteen feet of the north side of the house, so as to leave the north side of the same height as the front side of the house, thereby making the south roof thirteen and one-half feet long, and the north roof only twelve feet long, building a new chimney in the place of the old one, then taken down, but much smaller, and leaving the rooms in the front and middle parts of the house as they were before this amputation. The brick in this old chimney were much larger than modern brick, and were laid in clay. The shingles upon the walls. were taken off, and clapboards put on in place thereof, this house now being a two-story house, thirty-two feet front and twenty feet back, with a porch annexed to the back side, the windows upon the three sides of the house being the same ever since the memory of man, except such as were cut off as aforesaid, and except square glass in place of the old diamond glass and bull's eyes.

"The annex, or addition of eighteen by thirty-four feet, made in 1678, was quite fully developed and apparent on a personal examination of the inside of the house a few years ago by the writer, and the frame-work, timber, doors, materials, and inside construction of the house exhibit strong marks of antiquity.

"In the case of the inhabitants of Bridgewater versus the inhabitants of West Bridgewater, reported in the seventh volume of 'Pickering Reports,' page 191, and in the ninth volume of Pickering, page 55, in the years 1828-29, brought for the support of Daniel Keith, a pauper, then aged eighty-one years,