The settlement of Bedford was thus the outgrowth of an unquenchable thirst for civil and religious liberty. A profound conscientiousness added these simple, devout, frugal, and industrious people to the pioneer assailants of the North American wilderness. The ancient records and the published annals of the town afford a quaintly interesting picture of early New England civilization. Its background is the rock of religious faith, and to repeat the chronicles of the Bedford church for the eighteenth century is to write the history of the township for that period. The original grant required the maintenance of "a learned, orthodox ministry." The petition for the charter of Bedford set forth that "your petitioners, as to our particular persuasion in Christianity, are generally of the Presbyterian denomination," and assigned as the chief reason for asking incorporation that they "having been long destitute of the gospel, are now desirous of taking the proper steps in order to have it settled among us," but "not being incorporated by civil authority are in no capacity to raise those sums of money which may be needful." The official records of formal township proceedings abound in such entries as these: _Feb. 15. 1748._ _Voted_--That one third of the time, Preaching shall be to accommodate the inhabitants at the upper end of the town; one other third part, at the lower end of the town; the last third, about Strawberrie hill. _July 26, 1750._ _Voted_, There be a call given to the Rev. Mr. Alexander Boyd, to the work of the ministry in this town. _March 28, 1753._ _Voted_, Unanimously, to present a call for Mr. Alexander McDowell, to the Rev'd Presbytery for the work of the ministry in this town. _March 13, 1757._ _Voted_,--That Capt. Moses Barron, Robert Walker, and Samuel Patten, be a committee for boarding and shingling the meeting-house. _March, 1767._ _Voted_,--That the same committee who built the pulpit, paint it, and paint it the same color the Rev. Mr. McGregor's pulpit is, in Londonderry. _June, 1768._ The meeting-house glass lent out[1]; Matthew Little's account of the same. David Moore had from Matthew Little, six squares of the meeting-house glass; Daniel Moor had 4 squares of the same, Dea. Gilmore had of the same, 24 squares. _November 20, 1768_, the Rev. Mr. John Houston, had 24 squares of the same; Hugh Campbell had 12 squares of the same; Dea. Smith is to pay Whitfield Gilmore 6 squares of the same; James Wallace had 15 squares of the same; John Bell had 9 squares of the same; Joseph Scobey, one quart of oil. A true record. Attest, WILLIAM WHITE, _Town Clerk_.