Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/547

THE PAKSONAGE. 443 Learned Peck, Ebenezer Smith, Simeon Drown, Joseph Rawson, George Gladding, Watson Ingraham, Samuel Smith, Nathaniel Smith, Jr., John Humphrey, Emerson Humphrey, Thomas Allen, George Allen, Ellis Peck, Benja- min Martin, Sylvester Allen, Anderson Martin, Ambrose Martin, Sterry Martin, Mary Tiffany, Benjamin Heath, Kent Brown, Simon Smith, Asa Smith, Nathaniel Smith, Josiah Kinnicutt, and Samuel Heath of Barrington. The property was deeded to them, their heirs, and assigns, to be held as a parsonage, for the use of a minister in the Congregational Society of said Barrington, so long as he shall be settled in, and continue to preach to said society, but to be for the use of said society, when there is no minister preaching to them. The estate was bounded easterly, by the East Highway ; southerly, by the land of John W. Bicknell, Joshua Bicknell, and others ; westerly by the West Highway ; northerly, by land of Josiah Kinnicutt, Sylvester Allen, Kent Brown, and others, and contained about twenty-one acres. . In the year 1843 the trustees of the parsonage petitioned the General Assembly to pass an Act empowering them to sell, or donate the property by which the parsonage property was transferred to the United Congregational Society of Barrington, in 1844. In May, 185 1, a meeting was called to consider the pro- priety of disposing of the property, when stormy opposition arose, and bitter feeling was awakened between the parties. At that meeting it was voted to postpone the subject indefi- nitely. On the 3rd of January, 1853, a committee of the Society was appointed, to take into consideration the propri- ety of selling the parsonage. The committee reported Feb. 5th of the same year, in favor of selling the property, and by a vote of twenty-six yeas to thirteen noes, it was then ordered to be sold. It was accordingly sold at public auction, March 25th, 1853, for the sum of $2,800, thereby settling a vexa- tious question which had agitated the community for a long period, and had caused scandals and serious divisions in the society and town. The house was afterwards sold and re-