Community Corner
Twenty-second Week, Wednesday's "Medfield Historical Minute"
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis.
A Medfield Historical Minute...
This "Medfield Historical Minute" is brought to you by town historian Richard DeSorgher.
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis. A different "Medfield Historical Minute" will appear each day during the Crisis.
"In 1794 Ebenezer Clark was chairman of the Baptist Society. He was seized for non-payment of ministerial taxes, dragged to Boston and jailed. In Massachusetts at that time, non-members of the established Puritan church had to pay taxes supporting the Puritan minister. Many others who had a different religion, especially Baptists, dissented , thinking this was unfair that they had to pay taxes to support another church’s minister and then support their own minister as well, who received no town help. After some second thoughts, Medfield selectmen determined that they had been “overzealous.” They hurried into Boston and had Ebenezer released from jail. This was the last recorded attempt in Medfield to force such ministerial payments."
