With  respect  to  Hopkinton,  we  shall  speak  of  the  distribu-
tion of  the  "  parsonage  money  "  hereafter  ;  but,  after  Decem-
ber 9,  1817,  we  cannot  historically  speak  of  this  town  as  in
any  practical  sense  a  function  interested  in  the  minister  of
any  particular  church.  After  that  date,  the  town  passed
no  votes  relating  to  the  needs  or  wants  of  the  "  learned  and
orthodox  minister."

In  1814,  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  began  seriously  to
consider  the  subject  of  a  permanent  seat  of  government.
The  General  Court  had  no  certain  abiding  place.     In  this


116  LIFE   AJSTD   TIMES   IN    HOPKINTON.
respect,  the  condition  of  New  Hampshire  appears  to  have
been  different  from  every  other  state  in  the  Union.  On  the
6th  of  June  of  that  year,  a  legislative  committee  was  select-
ed to  consider  the  subject  of  location  and  matters  incident
thereto.  The  committee  consisted  of  John  Harris  of  Hop-
kinton,  Benjamin  Kimball,  Jr.,  of  Concord,  and  Andrew
Bowers  of  Salisbury.  Each  member  of  the  committee  rep-
resented a  town  that  desired  to  become  the  state  capital.
The  lot  of  being  the  chief  town  in  the  state  fell  to  Concord,
and  in  1819  the  state  legislature  occupied  the  new  state-
house  for  the  first  time.
The  passage  of  the  Toleration  Act  affected  Hopkinton
only  religiously.  The  location  of  the  state  capital  at  Con-
cord affected  this  town  socially.  The  localizing  of  the  Gen-
eral Court  at  Concord  was  the  first  severe  blow  to  Hopkin-
ton's  social  prosperity.  The  attention  of  publicly  influen-
tial people  began  to  be  drawn  away  from  this  town.  Four
years  later  occurred  another  event  that  was  disastrous  to
Hopkinton's  social  position  among  the  towns  in  the  vicinity.
