Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

202 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
been legally organized, of which the Rev. Joseph Hull, who had removed
the preceding May from Weymouth, was the pa'Stor, and
Rev. John Mayo the teaching elder. No meeting house had been
built, and tradition points to the large rock near the dwelling-house
of Mr. Edward Scudder as the place where he and his followers
held their first meetings for public worship. That rock formerly
stood on the bluff on the south side of the road. It was gradually
undermined by the washings of the rains, and finally rolled down to
its present position on the opposite side of the road. It is not
stated, in any ancient record, that the first settlers assembled around
that rock for public worship, yet the tradition seems to be reliable.
The first Meeting House was built in 1646, and prior to that date
the meetings were either held in^ private dwelling-houses or in the
open air. Mr. Lothrop states in his records that the meeting on
Sunday, May 26, 1644, was held in the open air. It is probable
that all the meetings of the congregation prior to May 10, 1646,
were so held when the weather was mild and pleasant, because there
was uo building in the plantation sufficiently spacious to accommodate
all, for none of the people, who were physically able, absented
themselves from public worship. A stern necessity thus comes to
our aid in establishing the truth of the tradition. A large part of
the rock was split off and used for the foundation of the Jail, yet a
large mass remains, and like Plymouth Rock, should be preserved as
a memento of the fathers.
If the truth of this tradition be admitted, it indicates that Barn-
stable Rock was not far from the centre of the settlement made in
the spring of 1639. Mr. Hull probably pitched his first tent on the
land adjoining Coggin's Pond, that he afterwards sold to Samuel
Hinckley. This was about a quarter of a mile east of the Rock.
The early settlers selected their houselots in places convenient
to water, wood, and the salt meadows, and usually set their dwellings
in locations sheltered from the north and northwest winds.
They built in two neighborhoods—one in the vicinity of Goodspeed's,
now Meeting House Hill, and the other near Coggin's
Pond. The houselots were laid out in paralleograms, and contained
from eight to twelve acres each. I have before remarked that the
lots that were longest east and west were probably laid under the authority
of Mr. CoUicut ; but on a careful examination of the land I
find that the nature of the country required that they should be so
laid out, aud hence the supposition that they were laid by Mr. CoUicut
does not appear to be warranted by the facts in the case, or by
the subsequent acts of the first settlers in the spring of 1640.
A portion of the first settlers built, in 1639, substantial frame
houses, one of which yet remains, the Goodspeed House, and Mr.
Lothrop's also, built a few years after the settlement. Mr. Hull,
Mr. Mayo, Thomas Lumbert, Mr. Dimmock, Elder Cobb, and a
few others, put up frame houses, the others temporary buildings,