Peep Deep, Volume 1, no. 2

Jonathan Edwards, A New Biography, by Iain H. Murry.

The Son of East Windsor

Windsor is somewhere in New England. Conneticut area. The place that just sacked Joe Lieberman. Back in 1636 a very famous Puritan preacher, Thomas Hooker, journeyed to this place from Massachusetts Bay area. Seems the Bay was too crowded. A woman named Ann Coles was part of the group that traveled with him along with her 18 yr. old son, William Edwards, the son of her deceased husband, Richard Edwards.

Though you may not think of yourself as having a forte in history, you probably can guess where this going? Yup. William got married. So, get this:

Richard begot William.
William begot Richard.
Richard begot Timothy (Creative guy, that Richard. Glad he broke the monotonous name cycle).
Timothy begot Jonathan.

Seems like Richard, Jonathan's grandpa, had a very bad marriage. So bad, that Timothy (Jonathan's dad) and his sister actually filed a complaint against her to justify their father's divorce! Seems like poor Richard had barely betrothed and married his lovely wench when she had a baby by another man. She actually had all kinds of infidelities. That sort of blows the whole pre-1950s utopia we imagine America to be. Anyway, Timothy highly admired dad Richard. He said of his dad: "He was naturally cheerful, sprightly, and sweet tempered, of a ready wit, had a mind well stored with knowledge, particularly the knowledge of history and theology, and in coversation was uncommonly pleasant and entertaining" (p. 5).

That's a pretty cool thing to say about a dad. Hope my son says that about me some day.

Oh, don't have a son. So much for the well-stored mind part.

Apparently, Timothy was a flat out good preacher. He married into preaching stock too. Not that his wife was a preacher, but her dad, Solomon Stoddard, was. Pastor Stoddard, Jonathan's grandpa from his mom's side, said, "We are not sent into the pulpit to shew our wit and eloquence but to set the consciences of men on fire" (p.8).

Jonathan was born to Timothy and Esther Edwards on October 5, 1703. He was number five. Four girls preceded him. Six girls would be born to Timothy and Esther after Jonathan was born. All I can say is, "Wow!"

It is really too bad that basketball hadn't been invented yet. All ten of Timothy's daughters were at least 6 feet tall! People spoke of Timothy Edwards' "sixty feet of daughters!" He deserves a medal for that. I have 3 feet of daughter and I sometimes think myself a worthy candidate for canonization.

Seems like Timothy taught son Jonathan to do all his work with a "pen in hand and to regard accuracy in writing essential" (p.14). AT thss varya mment I have a penn nin handas anddsa it issn ot helpingm y accararuacy nin wrritnng. Oh well, I guess I'll never be like Jonathan Edwards that way.

This was a godly family. The correspondence between Jonathan and his sisters is amazing. Such depth. Jonathan was a mature, young man, adequately prepared for higher learning with a thorough grasp of latin and greek when he rode down river in 1716 on his way to college at the ripe old age of 13.