StpaulHingHam.net
Title
St. Paul Parish
Description
When the Reverend Peter Hobart first came with his band of colonists to Bare Cove in 1635, Catholic settlement and influence in Massachusetts were small indeed. Sir Christopher Gardiner, the first Catholic of record in Quincy, had settled in Squantum in 1629. He had suffered difficulties at the hands of the Puritans and had taken refuge among the Indians in Plymouth. However, they turned him over to Governor Bradford and he was brought a prisoner to Plymouth, taken to Boston, and finally shipped off to London in 1631.
Perhaps the first mention of Catholicity in Hingham was contained in the writings of Josiah Quincy, who in his day was the leader of the Federalists and, in his late years, wrote a book called Figures of the Past, in which he recalled:
"One day at the beginning of the century (that would be around 1800) I was driving to Boston in a pelting storm and overtook a forlorn foot passenger who, drenched and bedraggled, was plodding along the miry road. I drew up my horse and called to the stranger to get in and ride with me. 'That would be scarcely fair' was the man's reply. 'My clothes are soaked with water and would spoil the cushions of your chaise, to say nothing of the wetting I could not avoid giving you. ' These objections were made light of and, after some difficulty, the wayfarer was persuaded to take the offered seat. During the ride I learned that my company was a priest named Cheverus, who was walking from Hingham where he had been to perform some office connected with his profession, and thus commenced an acquaintance which afterwards ripened into friendship between those whose beliefs and ways of life were outwardly so different."
Contact
- KPC Computer
-
- Dorchester MA
- United States 02125
-
- 6173122126
