Solomon Stoddard (1643 - 1729)

Born 27 Sep 1643 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Esther (Warham) Stoddard — married 8 Mar 1670 in Northampton, Hampshire County, MA.

Descendants

Died 11 Feb 1729 at age 85 in Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Hayley Stoddard [send private message], Rob Stafford [send private message], and Christina Stoddard [send private message]

Biography

Rev. Solomon Stoddard (September 27, 1643, baptized October 1, 1643 – February 11, 1729) was the pastor of the Congregational Church in Northampton, Massachusetts. He succeeded the Rev. Eleazer Mather.

Rev. Mr. Solomon Stoddard married Mar 8, 1669/70 in Northampton, Massachusetts, the widow Hester Warham Mather, daughter of John Warham of Windsor and widow of Eleazer Mather.^[1]

Stoddard significantly liberalized church policy while promoting more power for the clergy, decrying drinking and extravagance, and urging the preaching of hellfire and the Judgment. The major religious leader of what was then the frontier, he was concerned with the lives (and the souls) of second-generation Puritans. The well-known Jonathan Edwards (theologian) (1703-1758) was his grandson ... Solomon's daughter, Esther Stoddard, was Jonathan's mother.

Stoddard is credited with propounding "The Halfway Covenant", a relaxation of the rules of Communion that accompanied a decline of piety in the Congregational church. Stoddard's interest was to insure the growth of church congregations in a colony of second-generation pilgrims who were increasingly interested in the political and economic life of the frontier, as opposed to the pure idealism of their immigrant parents. Stoddard taught that people who had grown up in the church and were not scandalous in behavior could receive communion as a means of grace and have their children baptized, despite the fact that the Puritan tradition had previously required prospective members of the church to proclaim a spiritual "conversion".

Graduated Harvard University in 1662, and settled as minister in Northampton on Sep 11, 1672. He was the first librarian of Harvard.

Children of Solomon & Hester/Esther born in Northampton, CT.^[1]

1. Mary Stoddard b. Jan 9, 1670/1
2. Hester b June 2, 1672
3. Samuel b Feb 5, 1673/4
4. Antony b June 6, 1674
5. Christian b Aug [ ] 1676
6. Antony b Aug 9, 1679 listed elsewhere as 1678
7. Sarah b Apr 1, 1680
8. John b Feb 17, 1681 (This should probably be 1681/2)
9. Israell b Apr 10, 1684
10. Rebecca [b 1686]
11. Hannah b Apr 26, 1688

Burial

Bridge Street Cemetery, Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts (Find A Grave)

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} ”Vital Records of Northampton, Massachusetts, 1655-1686.” Corbin Collection Volume 1: Records of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. CD-ROM. Boston, Mass: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003. (Online AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.)

• Hamlin, Arthur T. The University Library in the United States: Its Origins and Development. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981, p. 10, ISBN 9780812277951

• The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730, J. A. Leo Lemay, pg. 178, ISBN 978-0-8122-3854-9

• Wikipedia:Solomon_Stoddard

• Demos, John. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story From Early America (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1994)

• Cothren, William. History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut (Bronson Brothers, Bethlehem, Connecticut. 1854) Page 713.

• Bridgman, Thomas. Inscriptions on the Grave Stones in the Grave Yards of Northampton (Hopkins, Bridgman & Co., Northampton, Mass., 1850) Page 23.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #7778410

• Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Charles William Sever, Cambridge, 1881) Vol. 2, Page 111-22.