The Hancock pastorate lasted eighteen years, ending with Mr. Hancock's death on the 7th of May, 1744; and no record of cases of church discipline seems to have been kept by any of his successors in the pulpit of the North Precinct church. In the year 1750 Braintree probably contained some eighteen hundred or two thousand inhabitants, and during the half-century between 1725 and 1775 there is no reason to suppose that any considerable change took place in their condition, whether social, material or religious. It was a period of slow maturing. The absence of a record, therefore, in no way implies change; if it indicates anything at all in this case, it indicates merely that the successors to Mr. Hancock, either because they were indolent or because they saw no advantage in so doing, made no written mention of anything relating to the church's life or action beyond what was contained in the book regularly kept by the precinct clerk. There are but two exceptions to this, both consisting of brief entries made, the one by the Rev. Lemuel Bryant, the immediate successor of Mr. Hancock, the other by the Rev. Anthony Wibird, who in 1755 followed Mr. Bryant. Both entries are to be found on the second page of the volume from which all the extracts relating to church discipline have been taken. Mr. Bryant was for his time an advanced religious thinker, and, as is invariably the case with such, he failed to carry the whole of his flock along with him. Owing to declining health he resigned his pastorate in October, 1753, having exactly two months before recorded the following case of discipline:-- "August 22, 1753. Ebenezer Adams was Suspended from the Communion of the Church for the false, abusive and scandalous stories that his Unbridled Tongue had spread against the Pastor, and refusing to make a proper Confession of his monstrous wickedness." The other of these two records bears date almost exactly twenty years later, and was doubtless made because of the preceding entry. It is very brief, and as follows:-- "November 3, 1773. The Church made choice of Ebenezer Adams for deacon, in the place of deacon Palmer, who resigned the stated exercise of his office."