Academy, although debarred from the benefits of Madam Derby's bequests in many respects.
   The above votes mark all the substantial alterations which have been made in the school-buildings, and indicate many of the changes in the school itself.

   On April 5, 1791, the day of the opening of the school, the Trustees appointed Hon. Richard Couch and Hon. Cotton Tufts a committee for the purpose of providing a seal for the Trustees.

   The absence of any public halls for Public meetings of all kinds, until recent years, called the Academy into use frequently, — both the old building and the new.   More than one religious society held meetings there before the erection of their meeting-houses.   The building erected in 1818 gave the north part of the town the only hall of any considerable size until the erection of Loring Hall, in 1852, and it was the usual place for lectures, meetings, and social gatherings.
   The Trustees, in 1821, voted to let the hall of the Academy to the town of Hingham for the purpose of holding town-meetings at $8.00 a meeting, or at $30.00 a year, the town making good all extra damage.   Previously the town-meetings had most frequently been held in the meeting-house of the First Parish.   Several private schools were kept in the lower story of the Academy at different times, and in more recent years a room has been occupied by the Second Social Library.

   The Derby School and Academy have at times occupied a prominent place in the discussions of the town-meetings, and on more than one occasion action has been taken by the town leading to conferences with the trustees, sometimes of a friendly character, and sometimes, more especially in the earlier years, tempered with ill-feeling.
   As early as the March meeting of 1794, a committee was appointed by the town to "examine the privileges the town and parish are entitled to in the Derby School, and whether they are deprived of any privilege which by Mrs. Derby's will, lease, or