Afterwards (according to tlieir usual method of Town meetings) they appointed persons to procure Ministers for them and to agree with them for certain & fix't Salarys being usually about Sixty poimds per annum, for the levying wliereof they appointed Assessors & Collectors who assessed & levied the said sums on tlie lands & estates of all the inhabitants of wdiat sect soever they were and for tlie better encouragement of a Minister they not only gave liim possession of the said parsonage house but also of divers others parcels of land in the said town.

Tlie said Town as a further encouragement for a Ministry and that their habitation & maintenance miglit not be precarious but be made an orderly glebe on the 14-th June 1676 at a general town meeting it was voted and concluded in these words (viz*) That tliere should be forty acres of meadow designed and set apart for a parsonage lot in the East neck adjoining to the lots of meadow^ laid out with upland proportionable to other lots laid out in the town to continue at the dispose of the town to a minister when they shall have occasion to make use of it the greatest part of wliich Lands & Meadow tliey have lately resumed & divided amongst themselves.

Among the rest of their ministers that came unto them they made an agreement with one Mr J. Prudden a Dissent uig minister (there being no Orthodox divine sent over as yet) for j£40 per :annum but if he staid ten years then to have the Parsonage house and house Lot in fee (which agreement they could in no wise make having before that time given it for a parsonage) however M"" Prudden staid with them the ten years and afterwards by another agreement dated the 29 Sept 1693 the said M^" Prudden in consideration of other lands given him by that Town by way of Exchange conveyed the Parsonage house & land to the inhabitants of the said Town to hold as a parsonage to the use benefit k behoof of the ministry to them k their heirs for ever.