3. 1754 Mar 8. JE. Transcript of a letter to Mr. Willard, in the hand of Sereno E. Dwight.

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Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library > Andover Newton Theological Seminary collection of Jonathan Edwards (GEN MSS 1542) > Series I: Manuscripts > 1754 > 3. 1754 Mar 8. JE. Transcript of a letter to Mr. Willard, in the hand of Sereno E. Dwight.

33307351

Description

Title: 3. 1754 Mar 8. JE. Transcript of a letter to Mr. Willard, in the hand of Sereno E. Dwight.
Creator: From the Collection: Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758
Published / Created: 1754 March 8
Provenance: Acquired as part of the establishment of the Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School, 2017., According to a 1975 address by Ellis E. O’Neal, Jr. (the typescript of which is found in the Andover Newton Theological Seminary’s files concerning the collection, Series VI), the Jonathan Edwards papers arrived at Andover in 1865 when they were inherited by Elizabeth Bradford Dwight, wife of Professor Egbert C. Smyth. O’Neal writes: “The story of the Edwards’ manuscripts at Andover Theological Seminary actually begins after the publication of what is commonly referred to as the Worcester edition of Edwards’ works by the Rev. Samuel Austin in 1809. President Timothy Dwight of Yale, a grandson of Edwards’, was requested by his uncles to write a new life of Edwards. Apparently it was his intention to incorporate it in a definitive edition of Edwards’ works. However, his death in 1817 prevented the completion of this project. In a presentation before the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1901, Franklin B. Dexter, Assistant Librarian of Yale College, stated that there was ‘good evidence that President Dwight’s son, Dr. Sereno E. Dwight, received from his father…an injunction to carry out the work not yet accomplished, and accordingly soon began to gather the material, securing some manuscripts by gift and copies of others… A portion of this material is believed to have been secured by Dr. Dwight at Windsor, Connecticut, the home of Edwards’ boyhood.’ (Franklin B. Dexter, ‘the Manuscripts of Jonathan Edwards,’ Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2nd. Ser., 15 (1901, 1902): 3-4.) This material constituted a part of the estate which Sereno Dwight, upon his death in 1850, left to his brother, the Rev. Dr. William T. Dwight. The latter Dwight, an eminent minister in Portland, Maine, bequeathed the papers to his daughter, Elizabeth Bradford Dwight Smyth, the wife of Professor Egbert C. Smyth. Smyth was the Brown Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Andover and also served as president of the faculty for approximately nineteen years. Mrs. Smyth died a few weeks before her husband so the papers came to Andover from the Professor’s estate.”
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English