Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/257

 CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS. 203 has payed over and above, to be returned to him, and this hundred pounds as a settlement to be his property if he con- tinues to be our minister for the space of ten years, otherwise to be returned to the town again, and it is farther voted that if it should please God to take him away by death before the said term of ten years is out, that then his heirs shall have out of said sum the value of ten pounds a year so long as he shall labor as our minister." "Voted that whatever money is given in that is not marked shall belong to the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey." "Voted that the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey have seventy pounds a year as salary for the labor as long as he continues our minister, the said sum to be collected by the constable yearly, and payed into the town clerk, and by him to be payed to the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey." Messrs. Zachariah Bicknell, James Adams, and "Sergeant Peck" were appointed a committee "to treat with the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey about what the town had voted with re- spect to himself," and to report at an adjourned meeting, "this day fortnight at five o'clock in the afternoon at the house of Mr. Zachariah Bicknell." A protest was entered against the action of the town, signed by twenty-one persons, probably Baptists, who had stoutly opposed the formation of the new town, and also as earnestly opposed ta.xation for the support of the church and minister of another sect. While we of this day agree that the Baptists v/ere right in their position as to the public tax for the support of the ministry, it was undoubtedly a source of great annoyance to the founders of the new town to be confronted with so strong a sentiment against the current cus- tom of the other towns of the Colony. We honor the Baptists of Old Swansea and of New Barrington for their advanced stand in matters of civil and religious liberty, but had we been of " the standing order" in those days, we should prob- ably have regarded those apparently fanatical people as ex- ceeding sharp thorns in the flesh. The first ministerial business of the town was not settled until the fourth day of August, 1718, " When the Rev. Mr.