The call having been accepted by Mr. Noble, the people the following year set about the erection of a meeting house, which was to serve also as a residence for their pastor. In January, 1776, it was so far advanced that the exterior was nearly completed, for in David Burpee's book of accounts, under that date, there is a charge for work done by Messrs. Plummer and Bridges in "clapboarding one third of the east end of the meeting house." When finished the building was doubtless a very unpretentious little structure not at all like a modern church edifice and very unlike its successor, the Congregational church in Sheffield, but it was the first Protestant place of worship erected on the River St. John. In the order of survey of the Township of Maugerville, made by the Government of Nova Scotia in 1761, were the words "You shall Reserve four Lots in the Township, for Publick use, one as a Glebe for the Church of England, one of the Dissenting Protestants, one for the maintenance of a School, and one for the first settled minister in the Place." In accordance with this arrangement Lot No. 15, where the Sheffield Congregational church now stands, was fixed on in the year 1764 as a glebe for the "Dissenting Protestants." Improvements were made upon the lot and a part of it used as a burial ground. The first meeting house, however, was not built there. It probably stood on lot 13, the property of Jeremiah Burpee and later of his son, David Burpee. In the church records we have the following minute bearing upon the subject, the meaning of which, however, does not seem perfectly clear:-- "At a meeting of the Subscribers for the support of the Preached Gospel held at the meeting house in Sheffield on the 15th day of December, 1788-- Chose Mr. Daniel Jewett Chairman. "2ndly. Voted that the meeting house be set on the public lot in Sheffield. "3rdly. Voted to remove the meeting house in Maugerville to the public lot in Sheffield if the proprietor thereof consents thereto. "4thly. Chose Messers. Nathan Smith, Silvanus Plumer, Eben Briggs, Elijah Dingee and Jacob Barker, Esq., managers to remove the same." The meeting house was removed early in the spring, placed upon a stone foundation, a steeple erected, and many improvements made. If the Rev. Seth Noble had remained he would doubtless have had a grant of the lot reserved for the first settled minister in the township, but his removal in the year 1777 not only lost him the lot but caused it to pass eventually to the Rev. John Beardsley, rector of the church of England congregation.