" His wife died in a few
months, and he reproached himself for his pride in this honor, and left the
seat which he had in the men's foreseat. "God in his holy Sovereignty put
my wife out of the Fore Seat. I apprehended I had Cause to be ashamed of my
Sin and loath myself for it, and retired into my Pue," which was of course
less dignified than the foreseat.
Often, in thriving communities, the "pues" and benches did not afford
seating room enough for the large number who wished to attend public
worship, and complaints were frequent that many were "obliged to sit
squeased on the stairs." Persons were allowed to bring chairs and stools
into the meeting-house, and place them in the "alleys." These extra seats
became often such encumbering nuisances that in many towns laws were passed
abolishing and excluding them, or, as in Hadley, ordering them "back of the
women's seats." In 1759 it was ordered in that town to "clear the Alleys of
the meeting-house of chairs and other Incumbrances." Where the chairless
people went is not told; perhaps they sat in the doorway, or, in the summer
time, listened outside the windows. One forward citizen of Hardwicke had
gradually moved his chair down the church alley, step by step, Sunday after
Sunday, from one position of dignity to another still higher, until at last
he boldly invaded the deacons' seat.
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