Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 11.

When the deacons were chosen by the church, on March 1, it was decided to celebrate the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper on the 22d, and every sixth week thereafter, so the table needed to be provided, and this was to ‘reach so far as the door of the little pue under the pulpit.’

After this three pews were built next the front wall between the doors, but there was no alley before them, as the house was becoming too small. Deacon Bradshaw had the one on the right of the men's door, and Madam Porter (the minister's wife) the one on the left of the women's. Both of these could be entered from the alleys; the one between them could not. It was Ebenezer Brooks', and the town made a virtue of necessity and allowed him to cut a doorway into his pew through the front of the house. An evidence of the growth of the town and increased attendance is seen, that in January, 1714, the partition in both the front and upper gallery was moved over a little, to make room for one more man in each of the men's seats, i.e., five men, three in the first or fore-gallery, and two in the ‘gallery on the beams,’ or ‘uper gallery.’

In 1717 the ‘rail’ in the body of seats was also moved eastward, to accommodate five more men, and, strange to say, there was no protest from the women.

So many pews had been built that the body of seats had been reduced to five rows, as seen in the moving of the rail. And now a word about these pews. They were not such as we now see in church edifices of modern build, but were rectangular enclosures, such as may be seen in King's Chapel in Boston. They had a seat for one person in the front corner next the alley, and across the opposite end and back side, with a door next the alley, and when one was seated only his head was visible above the enclosure, unless perchance the open space between the ‘banesturs’ allowed the children to have a game of peek-a-boo, which wasn't safe to indulge in, for the ‘tytheingman’ was ever watchful.

[Continued in July Register]