INHERITANCE AND TRAINING 21 



Among the first men to come to the new colonies 

 in New England was "William, a son of this clergy- 

 man, bom about 1620, who came to Hartford, 

 where his son Richard, born 1647, the grandfather 

 of Jonathan, was an eminently prosperous mei'chant. 

 Richard was an only son. The father of Jonathan, 

 Timothy Edwards, was an only son in a family of 

 seven. Aristocracy was at its height in the house- 

 hold of the merchants of Hartford in the middle 

 of the seventeenth century. 



Harvard was America's only college, and it was 

 a great event for a young man to go from Hart- 

 ford to Harvard, but this Timothy Edwards did, 

 and he took all attainable honors, graduating in 

 1661, taking the degrees of A.B. and A.M. the 

 same day, "an uncommon mark of respect paid 

 extraordinary proficiency in learning." This bril- 

 liant graduate of Harvard was soon settled over the 

 church at East Windsor, Conn., where he remained 

 sixty-five years as pastor. 



Who can estimate the inheritance which comes 

 to a child of such a pastor who had been born 

 in a merchant's home. In the four generations 

 which stood behind Jonathan Edwards were two 

 merchants and two preachers, a grand combination 

 for manly and intellectual power. 



In this pastor's home Jonathan Edwards was 

 bom October 5, 1703. Those were days in which 

 great men came into the world. There were bom 

 within fifteen years of Jonathan Edwards a won- 

 derful array of thinkers along religious and philo- 



