Gabel – Good stuff !
I am particularly intrigued by the Northfield possibility, ( site of a Guild event ) a picture perfect New England town that I know well, having spent nine months on a restoration in the next town north, just over the NH line. ( site of another Guild event )
It’s intriguing for two reasons, a huge building boom began in the area in the 1760’s with the end of two wars, The F&I ( or the Seven Years War as I’m guessing SussexOak would know it ) and The Dispute over the New Hampshire Grants, ( the Grants being an undeclared and little recognized war, but a war all the same ) which opened up vast areas to now be safely settled. ( many NH towns were incorporated in the 1720’s but not settled until the 60’s and 70’s ) Coastal areas in Northern New England were long settled, ( if I travel 25 miles east I can be in towns settled in the mid 1620’s though mine was not for another 150 years ) but the interior was settled almost en masse.( there were exceptions, good bottom land and mill sites and self interest in keeping squatters off valuable grants meant some risked the threat of raids ) While the settlement of Massachusetts differed in that much of the interior was settled, I believe the Pioneer Valley (in which Northfield falls) was then the frontier. Northfield was settled in 1673 but certainly an area wide building boom would have had effect there – The longstanding trained carpenters home-quatered on the frontier would have been in high demand, as example, Winchester NH – the next town north – was razed completely in a fiery raid in 1747, during King Georges War
Such building booms often spark innovation. All my towns earliest buildings are scribe and English Tying, but obviously someone somewhere was innovating. And while The War of 1812 may well have been the vehicle responsible for the rapid dissemination of SR ( forget where I heard that theory or whose it is ) on a national scale, that does not mean it’s innovator and his crew had not been quietly practicing it for some years.
The other reason it is intriguing is that it is potentially verifiable! Records verifying the steeples date of construction might well exist, and if the Meetinghouse likewise still exists, a survey of it’s framing will tell us much.
I already have a call in to the towns historic commission hoping to arrange such a survey, should I find something to report, I’ll post it here.
