Hamilton Hill utilized and printed a large number of contemporaneous documents in preparing this comprehensive history of the Third or Old South Church of Boston during its first two centuries. The account of the serious controversies surrounding the formation of this church is especially complete.
In this strictly chronological treatment of the history of the Old South Church, Hill includes throughout the two volumes hundreds of verbatim extracts from the surviving records of the church. During the years when they exist and are relevant, he also quotes extensively from private and public letters and petitions, from Samuel Sewall's Diary and from Boston newspapers.
The Third or Old South Church was founded in 1669 by members of the First Church of Boston who were opposed to the settlement of the Reverend John Davenport as minister of the first church. The secession and founding of the new church were acrimonious and generated dozens of letters and petitions and other documents, many of which are published here and provide an excellent picture of the issues surrounding the organization of a new church in the developing Congregational denomination.
