All through the colonial period the civil affairs of the community were intimately connected with the interests of the church; and ecclesiastical history, when church and State were united, and the minister was the greatest man of the parish, becomes of importance.
As early as 1640, in the church of Boston, "a motion was made by such as have farms at Rumney Marsh, that our Brother Oliver may be sent to instruct our servants, and to be a help to them, because they cannot many times come hither, nor sometimes to Lynn, and sometimes no where at all." The piously disposed people of Boston evidently commiserated the destitute condition of their poor dependents, and were desirous of ministering to their spiritual wants.
