The earliest New England meetinghouses seated parishioners on benches, often without regard to social standing or prominence. However, this quickly changed and by the mid-1600s most towns began building and assigning pews. Like many other towns, Deerfield, Massachusetts, assigners of pews seated people according to age, estate, and social status. The amount of a pew rental depended upon its location in the meetinghouse, the most favorable being front and center. The seating was often reassigned, sometimes as much as once a year. The custom changed again in the years following the American Revolution. When the First Church of Deerfield voted to replace the town’s second meetinghouse in 1823, members decided that the pews would be sold. A committee was appointed to assess the value of each pew and their calculations appear in this document. The seats closest to the pulpit (numbers 4-7, 72-75, 29-33, and 46-50) were given the highest value at $100. The remainder were assessed accordingly. Several seats did not sell at auction and were assigned to the minister (number 53), or left open for the poor or visitors who did not choose to sit in the gallery upstairs.
First Church of Deerfield. Pews in Deerfield meeting house first Parish- sold December 1824. 1824. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l02-126/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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