Religion at the Isles of Shoals

What a shock it is to learn that well before those intrepid voyagers of the Mayflower made their way to our side of the sea, British fisherman lived on the islands off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire year-round, filling boats that arrived in summer and winter with dried fish for sale in England. These men had befriended the Natives, built stockades and houses, and started settling on the mainland at the same time the Pilgrims arrived. These entrepreneurs brought business to the New World and established churches. Lois Williams has studied one of the oldest and longest standing of the island fishing stations. She traces the religious history of the Isles of Shoals from its earliest development through four hundred years of evolution and change. The story is replete with episodes of the conflict that marked the existence of both the Anglican and the Puritan churches in the area, and, sadly, the conflict between the powers of religion and the dissenters. The fortunes of the Shoals waxed and waned in the centuries that followed, depending on the fishing trade, the Navigation Acts and wars. With Lois William's history, we learn about the lives and contributions of the clergy who ministered to the islands' inhabitants.