The first sermon was preached here by Col. John Reid, who had studied for the ministry in his youth. Mr. Daniel Boardman, a preacher of the Gospel, came here in 1712. The next year it was voted that the inhabitants should pay all the expense that had been incurred in obtaining a minister, also to lay out a pastor’s lot, to dig and stone up a well for Mr. Daniel Boardman, if he became a settled minister in New Milford. Meanwhile, the town allowed 5s. 6d. a week for the minister’s board. In 1715 the town agreed to petition the General Court to “attain liberty for the settlement of the worship and ordinances of God among us.” This was the subject that then came up at every meeting of the inhabitants. It was not until 1716 that they made arrangements for laying out a burying ground of two acres; but for four years before that they had been contriving and planning for the religious instruction of themselves and families. The poverty of the people appears in the resolution adopted as to Mr. Boardman’s salary, one third of which was to be paid in grain, two-thirds in labor, linen, or pork; the established price of wheat was then 4s. a bushel, rye, 2s. 8d., corn 2s. and oats 1s.; part of the agreement being that Mr. Boardman should sell the grain which he had to spare at the same prices to the inhabitants. In accordance with a vote of the town, Mr. Boardman was ordained November 21st, 1716. So far as the records show, there was then entire unanimity of religious belief and opinion among the people. The Ecclesiastical Society and the Town were practically one and the same. Everything regarding the building and finances of the Society was determined in Town Meeting. The first division occurred in 1731-2, when 20 persons withdrew to form a Quaker Society. They built a house in 1742 and have continued their worship from that time until the present, though at this date there is but one family of them residing in the town. In 1743 the inhabitants of “Newbury” were set off for a separate religious Society, and in the division of the Parsonage lands in 1755, £98 3s. 6½d., was given to this Society, £13 14s. 6½d. to Newbury, and £5 12s. 7½d. to New Preston. Newbury was the ancient name of Brookfield, and was formed into a town in 1788, from parts of New Milford, Danbury, and Newtown. The Church at Brookfield was therefore organized, not in 1757, as heretofore reported, but in 1743-4. The inhabitants of the “Neck,” as Bridgewater, was originally called, early made representations to this Society of the inconvenience of attending worship here during Winter months. Part of their tax was remitted on condition that they provided preaching for themselves during the Winter; and for a number of years Mr. Taylor and Mr. Griswold spent one Sabbath in each of the three Winter months at the Neck. The Church at Bridgewater was organized in 1809. Bridgewater was set off as a town in 1856.