History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

1768.] POLITICAL MATTERS—CENSUS—JAIL—NEW TOWNS. o27
the colonies l)y restricting the nnmber of representatives
in the lower House. Instructions were issued that no more
towns should be constituted with the privilege of represen-
tation. Hence for many years all municipal incorpora-
tions were erected into districts, hut without authority to
send deputies to the General Court. ^ Gideon Lyman was
representative from the double district in 1754, 1755, 1757 ;
Timothy Dwight for eight years in succession, from 1758 to
1765 ; and Joseph Hawley in 1754, 1755, and for nine years
consecutively from 1766. In 1764, while Timothy Dwight
represented Northampton, Joseph Hawley seems to have
served in the same capacity for Southampton. A change
was made in the law in 1786, and every town was author-
ized to send a representative.
Notwithstanding the hardship and disaster
The Meeting-House
too Small. attendant upon the seven years' war, the
town continued to increase in wealth and
numbers. So large had become the population three years
after the war closed, that the meeting-house, onl}'- thirty
years in existence, was altogether too small, and the people
had been for some time planning for its enlargement. • All
the available space for sittings had been utilized, and still
there was not room enough. Several of these suggestions
have already been enumerated, some of them had been
ordered, but few apparently had been carried out. In 1767,
a definite proposition was made to enlarge the structure,
but the town was not ready for the undertaking, and it was
promptly negatived.
Poorhouse Provided.
Durlug the Same year it was voted to build
a house with two rooms for the use of the
poor, but the committee chosen to consider the matter reported
that the house of Simeon Root could be hired for
that purpose, and the selectmen were directed to secure the
property.
Census of the Town. Three ycars previous to this last attempt
to enlarge the meeting-house, a census of
the town was taken, as Major Hawley says, "by order of
the King of England." The result was as follows : —
1 Holland''s History of Western Massachusetts, vol. 1, p. 202.
num-