What is the setting of "The Minister's Black Veil"?

Yes, the setting of the
story is identified in the first line of the text: "The sexton stood in the porch of
Milford meeting-house, pulling busily at the bell-rope."  Milford is a town in
Massachusetts, a fact that can be confirmed with a quick google search, but we could also make a
fairly educated guess to this effect because of the clues Hawthorne gives us regarding the time
period in which the story is set.  First, Puritans referred to their places of worship as
meetinghouses because they preferred to differentiate their worship from that of Catholics.  The
Puritans loathed Catholicism and what they viewed as the corruption in that Church; Puritan
meetinghouses lacked ornament and the accoutrements associated with Catholic churches.  Further,
some members of the community are given the title, Goodman, which was essentially the Puritan
"Mister."  Both the reference to the meetinghouse as well as to Goodman Gray help to
identify this community as a Puritan one which means that the story likely takes place sometime
between 1640 and 1690.  Since the Puritans began the Massachusetts Bay Colony, identifying this
group as Puritan helps to confirm the setting's location as well as time.