First Congregational Church - Paxton MA - Town Clocks on Waymarking.com

In the mid-eighteenth century, the Congregational Church was the established
church of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The only grounds for establishing
a new community were to construct a meetinghouse as a place for public
worship. By Puritan law, Sunday church worship was mandatory. Newborn
infants, by church law, were to be baptized within forty days after
birth.

These were the conditions which faced the settlers of the region that
consisted of the southern portion of Rutland and the northern portion
of Leicester. In order to attend church, they had to travel more than
three miles either to Rutland or to Leicester through snow and swamplands with the constant fear of Indian attack.

A petition was presented to His Majesty’s Great and General Court in
October 1743 to establish a new municipality in order to build a meetinghouse in this remote area. After twenty-two years of petitioning, the Parish and the Town of Paxton was authorized in 1765.

The meetinghouse was erected on donated pastureland in June 1766, near where the flagpole is presently located on the Common. After the Congregational Church was disestablished from the State, the church was moved to its present site, a steeple was added, and a Paul Revere & Sons bell was installed. It was the Sexton’s duty to ring the curfew at 9 o’clock each evening. When someone died, the Sexton would toll the bell one stroke for each year of the deceased person’s age.


Source: (visit link)

Status: Working Display: Mounted Year built: 01/01/1766 Web link to additional info: Not listed

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Photo of clock.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/04/2010 nomadwillie visited it