Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH. 333
time the old meeting house was occupied by a portion of
the Society who did not wish to leave the place in which
their fathers worshipped. It subsequently became the
property of a member of the Free-Will Baptist Church;
and was occupied at several different periods as a place of
worship by that denomination, which afterwards erected
the church on Pearl street. In the intervals of this occupancy, it had been for a considerable portion of the time,
kept open for religious worship, sometimes by series of
Sunday afternoon or evening services, arranged by the
clergymen of the city; sometimes by regular services
conducted by the city missionary. Several years before
its destruction a floor was laid between the two tiers of
windows. The second story was converted into an audience-room, with a pulpit, while the lower story was divided
into a ward-room and two school-rooms.
The first pastor settled after the house was erected was
Rev. William Shurtleff, in 1733, who died in 1747. His
remains, the record says, were "deposited in a grave under
the communion table." It appeared on the removal of the
upper flooring, that a hole the size of the coffin was cut in
the under boards about ten feet west of the communion
table, and that here his remains, with those of his successor,
Rev. Job Strong, had lain for more than a century.
It was not a matter of great importance, but the discrepancy of the record and the fact we will explain.
On going from the house about the time it was taken
doown, we met standing on the hill, the venerable Captain
Daniel Fernald, who seemed to look with much interest
upon the departure of the place of worship of his early
days. Among his interesting recollections of the house,
he said, that originally the house was some twenty feet
shorter than it now is. Nearly a century ago it was cut
in two, the eastern half moved about twenty feet, and a
new piece put into the centre of the house. This was at