History - Church Beginnings, 1743

One of the terms of the act of incorporation required the citizens to erect a meetinghouse and maintain a “Godly” minister. Five months after its incorporation, Leominster decided to build its first meetinghouse. The small building was used for both worships and town meetings.

The first meeting house was erected in the summer of 1741. It was 45 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 22 feet high, rough boarded on the outside, with a loose floor and moveable seats. It had few or no glass windows. The outside was not finished and painted until 1753. For several years there were no pews. (The building continued in use until October 1775, when it was sold to the Baptist Society in Harvard, taken down, and rebuilt in Still River.)

In 1742 the town voted to hire one month’s preaching by a Mr. Buckman. George Bodge says this was David Buckman of Malden, who graduated from Harvard College in 1737 and died in 1749. Rufus Stebbins says this was Nathan Buckman, who graduated at Cambridge in 1721, was ordained at Medway in 1724, and died in 1795 at an age of 92.

A minister was paid in April 1742 from the penny account (a tax of one penny per acre on land owned by town residents). In August of 1742 the Rev. John Prentice, minister of the church in Lancaster, preached and baptized two children. In October 1742, the town voted to hire a Mr. Adams to preach for 12 week, and in January 1743 for another month. The Rev. Stearns of Lunenburg preached in December 1742.

On March 17, 1743, the town voted to “settle Mr. John Rogers, a learned orthodox minister.” The minister was to have 40 acres of land and a salary that would increase once 60 families were settled in the town. Mr. Rogers was ordained on September 14, 1743 (old style); the ordination service included participation by ministers from Littleton, Dracut, Lancaster, Westford, Lunenburg, and Westminster. A church was organized on the same day, composed of 16 male members, who signed their names to a covenant.

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