ABSTRACT
In Liverpool, the religious conflict involved both substantive doctrinal issues and the definition of New England Congregationalism. The religious structures of early Liverpool and Machias reflected the prevailing customs in colonial New England. The attempt to coax a phoenix of unification from the dying embers of New England Congregationalism illustrates a complex series of gradual transitions reshaping the religious, social, and political contours of Liverpool. In Liverpool, the religious conflict involved both substantive doctrinal issues and the definition of New England Congregationalism. Many Nova Scotia townships settled by New Englanders established a Congregational church and taxed local people for its support, a practice derived from New England custom. Social and political conditions rather than the physical condition of the frontier influenced religious developments in Nova Scotia and New England. The settlers in Liverpool and Machias initially followed the colonial New England pattern of conservative replication, as the proprietors and inhabitants made provisions for hiring a minister.
