Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

Edwards, Jonathan, was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, on the 5th of October, 1703. His great-great-grandfather on the paternal side was the Reverend Richard Edwards, a clergyman in London in the time of queen Elizabeth. His greatgrandfather, William Edwards, was born in England, came to America about the year 1640, and was an honorable trader in Hartford, Connecticut. His grandfather, Richard Edwards, was born at Hartford, and spent his life there as a respectable and wealthy merchant. His father, Reverend Timothy Edwards, was born in Hartford May 14, 1669. He entered Harvard College in 1687, "and received the two degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts on the Same day, July 4, 1691, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, 'an uncommon mark of respect paid to his extraordinary proficiency in learning.'" He was ordained pastor of the church at East Windsor in May, 1694. In 1711 he was appointed by the Legislature of Connecticut, chaplain of the troops sent on an important expedition to Canada. He was distinguished for his scholarship, devoutness, and general weight of character. He generally preached extempore, and until he had passed his seventieth year he did not often write the heads of his discourses. He lived to enjoy the fame of his son, and died January 27, 1758. On the maternal side, the great-grandfather of President Edwards was Anthony Stoddard, Esq., who emigrated from the west of England to Boston, and was a member of the General Court from 1665 to 1684. The grandfather of Edwards was the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Massachusetts, one of the most erudite and powerful clergymen of New England. Edwards' mother was Esther, the second child of the Northampton pastor, a lady of excellent education and rare strength of character.

The history of President Edwards cannot be fully understood without considering that both on the paternal end maternal side he was allied with families belonging to the ecclesiastical aristocracy of New England. He was an only son, and had ten sisters, some of whom became the wives of eminent men. He was trained by his father and his four eldest sisters (all of whom were proficient in learning) for Yale College, which he entered in 1716, just before he was thirteen years of age. During the next year his favorite study was Locke on the Human Understanding. "Taking that book into his hand upon some occasion not long before his death, he said to some of his select friends who were then with him, that he was beyond expression entertained and pleased with it when he read it in his youth at college; that he was as much engaged, and had more satisfaction and pleasure in studying it, than the most greedy miser in gathering up handfuls of silver and gold from some new-discovered treasure." When about twelve years of age he wrote a paper which indicates that he had been thoroughly interested in the question of Materialism. At about the same age he composed some remarkable papers on questions in natural philosophy. Having distinguished himself at college as an acute thinker, and also as an impassioned writer, he took his Bachelor's degree in 1720, and delivered the "salutatory, which was also the valedictory oration."