Settlers first came to this area of Massachusetts late in the seventeenth century, and Jacob Bartlett, a Quaker, and Nicholas Cook, a Baptist, were the earliest inhabitants and are generally known as the town pioneers. On November 27, 1719, at the request of thirty-three petitioners, the Town of Bellingham was incorporated. Although a number of town residents were Baptist, there was no Baptist church in Bellingham, so those of the Baptist faith belonged to Massachusetts' oldest Baptist church in Swansea. At a church meeting in Swansea on October 6, 1737, the desire of the brethren dwelling in Bellingham to form themselves into a church state was communicated by their elder and approved, and when they met to organize a Baptist church, fifteen men signed the new church covenant. Signed at Mendon on the 23 day of the eleventh month in the year of Our Lord Christ 1737, the covenant joined them together in a visible gospel church relation both to Jesus Christ their head and to one another as brethren. Thus was formed the fourth Baptist church in Massachusetts. Nathan Wight was the first pastor and was described as a pious and useful man, the first meetinghouse was located on High Street, and the present meetinghouse was built in 1826.