Case Name: The Inhabitants of Bellingham vs. The Inhabitants of West Boylston
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1849-10
Citations: 4 Cush. 553
Docket Number: 
Parties: The Inhabitants of Bellingham vs. The Inhabitants of West Boylston.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 58
Pages: 553–556

Head Matter:
The Inhabitants of Bellingham vs. The Inhabitants of West Boylston.
Where a minister, who has been regularly ordained in one town, is afterwards settled in another, as a pastor, with the full character, rights and duties of a pastor, but without any new ordination or ceremony of induction, or for a limited time, as for a year, he will, by such settlement as a minister, acquire a settlement as a pauper, within the statute of 1793, c. 34, § 2, cl. 7, (Rev. Sts. c. 45, § 1, cl. 7,) in the latter town.
This action was brought to recover the expenses incurred by the plaintiffs, in the support of Lorenzo O. Lovell, a pauper, in the State Lunatic Hospital, and was submitted to the court of common pleas, from whence it came to this court by appeal, upon an agreed statement of facts.
The expenses sued for were incurred as set forth in the declaration, and the pauper never had a legal settlement in the town of Bellingham. The pauper was settled and ordained as the stated minister of the Baptist society, so called and known in West Boylston, in the year 1835, and remained in that office during a part of a year. This society was established by the organization of fifty-one persons as a Baptist church in West Boylston, on the 23d of June, 1818, by an ecclesiastical council duly convened for that purpose. In the records of this society, which, previous to the 6th of April, 1824, had been lost or destroyed, minutes of the acts and doings of the same, at meetings held almost every month from the time of its organization until after the settlement of the pauper, as a minister, in 1835, were duly entered. Members of this church, in connection with other individuals, as a voluntary, unincorporated society, erected a meeting-house on land conveyed to them for that purpose, and possessed a parsonage-house in West Boylston, and had maintained nublic worship there, since the establishment of the church.
On the 6th of April, 1824, the members of the society, in pursuance of a warrant from a justice of the peace, held a meeting for" the purpose of organizing under the statute of 1823, c. 106, passed on the 16th of February, 1824; and, from the year 1824, until after the year 1835, meetings of the society, called by posting notices on their meeting-house, agreeably to a vote passed at the meeting held on the 6th of April, 1824, were held on the first Tuesday of March, annually, and at other times; at which meetings the usual parish officers were chosen, money raised for the support of public worship, and other usual parish business transacted.
On the 21st of November, 1835, the pauper resigned his ministerial office in West Boylston; and, on the 11th of January, 1836, the Village Baptist society, an incorporated religious society in the town of Fitchburg, at a meeting regularly convened, voted to choose Lorenzo O. Lovell to be their pastor, with a salary of $500, conditionally. On the 30th of January, the church connected with the society, at a regular meeting, concurred in the choice.
The pauper immediately entered upon the discharge of the iluties of a minister and pastor over the last-mentioned society and church, and statedly performed those duties until the 10th of February, 1837, when he resigned his pastoral office by a written communication to the church ; upon which the church, on the 15th of February, 1837, voted that “ this church no longer recognize the Rev. Lorenzo O. Lovell as their pastor.” Previous to this proceeding, a meeting of the society was called to be held on the 3d of November, 1836, for the purpose, among others, of seeing “what measures the society will take for the continuance of preaching; the yearly services of our pastor, as by the contract, being nearly at a close.” This meeting was adjourned from the 3d to the 11th of November, 1836, when the society voted, “ that the Rev. Lorenzo O. Lovell may continue his services till the annual meeting of the society in March, 1837.”
The doings of the church, in relation to this matter, were recorded as follows: “ Church met Feb. 4th, 1837, to confer relative to requesting Lorenzo O. Lovell, our pastor, to labor with us another year.” The consideration of this subject was adjourned to the 10th of February, 1837, when the pauper resigned, by the written communication to the church of that date, before referred to, and the church there afterwards, on the 15th of February, 1837, passed the vote of that date before recited.
There was no formal induction into the ministerial office, of the pauper over the Village Baptist society in Fitchburg, by installation or other religious ceremony; and it was agreed, that the usages of the Baptist denomination do not require, when a minister has been once ordained, that he should be installed on a new settlement afterwards; it is sometimes done, and sometimes omitted; being left to the option of the church or of the minister.
S. B. Walcott, for the plaintiffs.
C. Allen, for the defendants.

Opinion:
Fletcher, J.
It is not necessary to decide whether or not the pauper acquired a settlement in West Boylston, as tlie court are of opinion, that such settlement, if gained, was lost by his subsequently acquiring a settlement in Fitchburg.
By the seventh mode mentioned in the statute of 1793, c. 34, § 2, it is provided, that all settled ordained ministers of the gospel shall be deemed to be legally settled in the towns wherein they are or may be settled and ordained; and a similar provision in the Rev. Sts. c. 45, § 1, cl. .7, is as follows: " Every settled ordained minister of the gospel shall be deemed to have acquired a legal settlement in the town wherein he is or may be settled as a minister." Under either of the above statutes, a minister who had once been regularly ordained, in a particular town, and who should afterwards be settled in another town as a pastor, with the full character, rights and duties of a pastor, though without a new ordination, or ceremony of induction, and though for a limited time, as for a year, would gain a settlement in the town wherein he should be so settled. It appears by the facts agreed, that the pauper, who had become insane, was regularly settled and ordained as the stated minister of the Baptist society in West Boylston. After he left West Boylston, the Village Baptist society, an incorporated religious society in the town of Fitchburg, by a formal act of the society, chose him to be their pastor, and he immediately entered upon the discharge of the duties of a minister and pastor, over the last-mentioned society and church. There was, to be sure, no new ordination, nor was it necessary that there should be. There was evidence tending to show, and it was maintained in the argument, that he was originally engaged by this society, only for a year. But that his engagement was for a limited time, if it were so, is wholly immaterial. The facts show, clearly and conclusively, that he was duly instituted pastor ive.r the church and society in Fitchburg; that he was fully-inducted into that office, with all its rights and duties; and by being thus settled as minister and pastor, by force of the statutes, he acquired a legal settlement in Fitchburg.
The settlement in Fitchburg of course exempts the town of West Boylston from liability, and judgment must be rendered for the defendants.