It’s All In The Family

Recently I was reading a book, Creating Connecticut, by Walter W. Woodward, state historian for the state of Connecticut. The longest chapter in the book is titled, “Eleazer Wheelock, The Great Awakening, Samson Occom, and Moor’s Indian Charity School.” Early in the chapter, as it begins the discussion on the Great Awakening, the names of several other pastors who were involved are mentioned. These include Jonathan Edwards (who was then preaching in Northampton, MA), and “Wheelock’s brothers-in-law, the Reverend Benjamin Pomeroy of Hebron, and James Davenport of Long Island.” Since I knew both that Jonathan Edwards was related to me (he married Sarah Pierpont, the daughter of my ancestor James Pierpont), and that James Pierpont also had connections to the Davenport family, this intrigued me.

A few years ago, I had written a posting about Rev. James Pierpont entitled Putting the Connect in Connecticut which detailed how one of his skills was making connections with other important families in the state. This could be seen in three ways: (1) his wives (he married three times, each time to the granddaughter of a prestigious man in the state history; (2) his leading the founding of Yale University and the other ministers he got involved; and (3) his children (his three daughters all married prominent ministers from other cities).

But this statement about Eleazer Wheelock and his brother-in-law connections to other ministers seemed to be further cases of women in the family of one minister marrying ministers from other families. I decided to see what connections I could find between these five families (Pierpont, Edwards, Wheelock, Davenport, and Pomeroy).

 

The In-law Connections

·        Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) married Sarah Pierpont (1710-1758) in 1727. She was the daughter of James Pierpont (1659-1714), making Jonathan Edwards the son-in-law of James Pierpont.

·        James Davenport (1716-1757) was the son of Rev. John Davenport (1668-1730) and the grandson of Rev. John Davenport (1635-1776). James’ aunt (his father’s sister), Abigail Davenport (1672-1691), was the first wife of Rev. James Pierpont. This made James Pierpont the uncle-in-law of James Davenport.

·        Eleazer Wheelock (1711-1779) married Sarah Davenport (1702-1746) in 1735. She was the sister of James Davenport, making Eleazer Wheelock the brother-in-law of James Davenport.

·        Benjamin Pomeroy (1704-1784) married Abigail Wheelock (1717-1803) in 1734. She was the sister of Eleazer Wheelock, making Benjamin Pomeroy the brother-in-law of Eleazer Wheelock

That’s an extraordinary chain of marriage/in-law connections between these five prominent religious figures in Connecticut history and in the whole Great Awakening movement which impacted so many people in the state in the 1740s! All but Rev. James Pierpont were contemporaries who knew each other and cooperated in this venture.

 

The Yale Connections

For over 100 years, Yale College (first called the “Collegiate School” or the “Collegiate College of Connecticut”, later called “Yale University”) was the only institution of higher education in Connecticut. As the Early History of Yale University states, it was founded in 1701 by a group of ten Congregational ministers and “[t]he group, led by James Pierpont, is now known as ‘The Founders’.” But it was also another connection point for the five men being discussed here.

·        James Pierpont, as noted, was the principal founder of Yale in 1701. He had received his own education at Harvard and then as the pastor of the church in New Haven had led this effort to create a college in Connecticut. The “Collegiate College of Connecticut” was not originally located in New Haven, but moved there in 1716, two years after James’ death. It was renamed as Yale in 1718.

·        Jonathan Edwards entered the Collegiate College of Connecticut in 1716 at the age of just 13. He would not have known James Pierpont, who had passed away two years earlier, but he would have known of him. He graduated from Yale in 1720 and continued, receiving his M.Div. degree in 1722.

·        James Davenport graduated from Yale in 1732.

·        Eleazer Wheelock graduated from Yale in 1733.

·        Benjamin Pomeroy also graduated from Yale in 1733.

Thus, James Davenport, Eleazer Wheelock, and Benjamin Pomeroy were classmates at Yale as well as later being connected through marriage to each other’s sisters.

For further information on Yale, you can read other postings I have written about it:

·        Harvard and Yale

·        Yale - part 2

·        James Pierpont and Yale

 

Genealogical Connections

The latter four men were all contemporaries of each other. However, James Pierpont, while the father-in-law of Jonathan Edwards and the uncle-in-law of James Davenport, was essentially two generations older. He had married later in life (he was 32 when he married Abigail Davenport and she was just 19, he was 39 when he married Mary Hooker and 51 when his daughter Sarah (who later married Jonathan Edwards) was born.

The latter four men were all born 70-80 years after the Great Migration of 1630-1640 when 20,000 individuals came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This made them the great-grandsons of these early immigrants. But James was essentially two generations older and his father was one of the later immigrants, coming in 1640.

The 310+/- years between the Great Migration and my birth in 1948 were sufficient for about 11 generations to elapse. Thus, most of my Great Migration ancestors are my great*9 grandparents (making me eight generations removed from these ministers of the Great Awakening). In James Pierpont’s case it is one generation less. With that in mind, if I share a Great Migration ancestor with these men, it will likely be at the 2^nd cousin, 8 times removed, level (abbreviated here as 2C8X). Not surprisingly, with my deep roots in New England, this is exactly the genealogical connection I have found with all four of these men!

·        James Pierpont is my great*7 grandfather

·        Jonathan Edwards, 2C8X via William Tuttle (1607-1673)

·        James Davenport, 2C8X via Thomas Morris (1620-1673)

·        Eleazer Wheelock, 2C8X via Marie Marvin (1628-1713)

·        Benjamin Pomeroy, 2C8X via Richard Seymour (1604-1655)