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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855. (ed. Charles Brooks), Chapter 6: ecclesiastical history. (search)
the former subscription for the support of the minister should be continued, and that the board of the minister should be five shillings per week; and, if any one refused to pay his share of this, then the Selectmen should rate him according to his effects. The town's rate was one penny in the pound, and twelve pence per head. Supporting the ministry by an equal tax on all property was the settled policy of our fathers, though there had been objectors to the plan. So early as 1643, one Briscoe, of Watertown, says Winthrop, wrote a book against it, wherein, besides his arguments, which were naught, he cast reproach on the elders and officers. He was fined ten pounds, and one of the publishers forty shillings. Not successful in settling a minister, the town hired Mr. Benjamin Woodbridge, of Charlestown, to preach for six months; and, as his engagements in Charlestown did not allow him to reside in Medford, the town passed the following vote, Dec. 5, 1698:-- Voted that Cotton