CHAPTER V 



MRS. EDWARDS AND HOME TRAINING 



Much of the capacity and talent, intensity and 

 character of the more than 1,400 of the Edwards 

 family is due to Mrs. Edwards. None of the 

 brothers or sisters of Jonathan Edwards had 

 families with any such marvelous record as his, and 

 to his wife belongs not a little of the credit. 



At the age of twenty-four Mr. Edwards was mar- 

 ried to Sarah Pierrpont, aged seventeen. She had 

 an inheritance even more refined and vigorous 

 than that of Mr. Edwards. She was descended on 

 her father's side from the choicest of the Pierrpont 

 family of England and New England. Her father 

 was one of the most famous of New Haven clergy- 

 men, one of the principal founders, and a trustee 

 and lecturer of Yale College. On her mother's 

 side she was a granddaughter of Rev. Thomas 

 Hooker, of Hartford, "the father of the Connecti- 

 cut churches," and one of the grand men in early 

 American history. 



Personally, she was so beautiful and so noble- 

 minded that at the age of thirteen she was known 

 far and near for her Christian character and excep- 

 tional ability. "While she was still but thirteen and 



(37J 



