Founding of the First Parish Church in Kingston, Massachusetts

 The earliest congregation of First Parish in Kingston, first known as the “Jones River Parish or Precinct,” was not afraid to stand up for justice—a tradition this Church has carried on ever since. As the population of Plymouth Colony expanded northward, everyone was required by law to attend services at the Plymouth Meetinghouse. By 1717, there were about 40 families living in the region of the Jones River, and some lived more than 6 or 7 miles away from Plymouth. The long trek to church every Sunday was a hardship for these families, so they petitioned the General Court in Boston for a formal separation from Plymouth. This was challenged by Plymouth, but the Court ruled in favor of the petitioners, granting them their own precinct, which would later become the town of Kingston. In 1717, Major John Bradford, the grandson of William Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth Colony, gifted the land upon which the present Meetinghouse still stands. Soon after, the congregation began meeting together in the First Meetinghouse built in 1718. An established “orthodox” minister, Rev. Joseph Stacey, first preached on July 26, 1720 and was ordained and installed on November 2, 1720. First Parish Church of Kingston was born. 

Important Events and People

Our third minister, Rev.William Rand, served the Church during the Revolutionary War. He was a patriot, as were the vast majority of his congregation. When hostilities erupted in Lexington and Concord in 1775, a company of Kingston Minutemen, comprised of Kingston parishioners and led by school teacher (later Brigadier General) Peleg Wadsworth, marched north to attack the British troops stationed at Marshfield.  

Some members of the congregation made names for themselves during the War and performed heroic feats for their country. Dr. John Thomas served as Major General under George Washington and led the construction of the battlements on Dorchester Heights in a single night! His action forced the British to end their occupation of Boston and evacuate the city. (Today, Evacuation Day is celebrated on March 17th.) William Sever, a Kingston merchant, served on the wartime Massachusetts Council and secured funds to build the very first Massachusetts Naval Militia vessel, the Brig Independence here in Kingston. The Independence was built in the shipyard owned by the Drew family who were also members of First Parish Church.  The Independence is depicted on the Kingston Town Seal. 

After the war, a church member named Hannah Thomas became arguably the town’s first feminist activist. After her husband’s death during the war, she was left the rights to run the Gurnet Lighthouse. Initially, this was challenged by other members of the town, because she was a woman. So Hannah brought the case to the Massachusetts General Court and won the right to become the first female lighthouse keeper in America. 

 The rise of Unitarianism in New England was the result of the rejection of conservative Calvinist beliefs commonly held in 18th century congregational churches. Liberal Unitarian thought challenged what had been core beliefs of an earlier time. The liberal religious revolution included some the following principles: The rejection of the Trinity and the Unitarian assertion that there is one God; the rejection of the concept of Original Sin; the rejection of predestination and the Unitarian assertion that the individual is free to obtain salvation; and the assertion that reason must be applied for a true understanding of religious principles. These liberal principles guided Unitarianism throughout the rest of American history. In 1828, First Parish called its first Unitarian minister, Rev. Jonathan Cole.  The Installation of Rev. Cole created a split within the congregation and led to the formation of the Second Congregational Church and Society in Kingston (now the Mayflower Church).

The seventh minister of First Parish was Rev. Augustus Russell Pope, an abolitionist-minded minister during the lead-up to the Civil War. He argued anti-slavery before the congregation. Although Pope’s philosophy as a minister was to gently appeal to the moral righteousness of anti-slavery movement, some of the merchants in the congregation met these sermons with disgruntled hostility. During the time of Rev. Pope’s ministry at First Parish Church, the Anti-Slavery movement in Massachusetts, and the American Unitarian Association gained a considerable following in Kingston. Opposed to the institution of slavery, Rev. Augustus Russell Pope and Rev. Zephaniah Willis along with two former ministers of First Parish Church, Rev. Jonathan Cole and Rev. John Davis Sweet, signed a powerful antislavery declaration. They joined one hundred and seventy-five Unitarian ministers whose signatures were published on October 10, 1845 by William Lloyd Garrison in his abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. 

On March 7, 1960, the congregation voted 15 to 6 in favor of the merger between Unitarian and Universalist denominations. The First Parish Church in Kingston officially became a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and it remains so to this day.