By this change,--the invention of the colonists themselves without copy
or pattern,--the colonies were transformed from pure democracies into a
congeries of democratic republics; and each town-house, or whatever
building was used for such, became the state-house of a little republic.
And this is what it is in every New England town to-day.

Was not, then, the New England town-house a thing of inheritance at all?
Yes, so far as it was a building for the common meeting of the
inhabitants of the town, and so far as it was a place for free
discussion and the ordering of purely local affairs. The colonists came
from their English homes already familiar with the town-hall and its
uses so far. If one will turn to any gazetteer or encyclopædia which
gives a description of Liverpool, England, he will find the town-hall
described as one of the noble edifices of that town. The present
structure was opened in 1754, but it was the successor of others, the
first of which must have dated back somewhere near the time when King
John gave the town its charter--1207. Or he may turn to the town of
Hythe in the county of Kent. In its corporation records, it is said, is
the following entry, bearing date in the year 1399: "Thomas Goodeall
came before the jurats _in the common hall_ on the 10th day of October,
and covenanted to give for his freedom 20_d_., and so he was received
and sworn to bear fealty to our Lord the King and his successors, and to
the commonalty and liberty of the port of Hethe, and to render faithful
account of his lots and scots[A] as freeman there are wont." In another
entry, in the same year, the building is mentioned again as the "Common
House."

[Footnote A: The "lot" was the obligation to perform the public services
which might fall to the inhabitants by due rotation. "Scot" means tax.]