THE EDWARDS LINE Though both were prominent in Northampton, no relationship appears to have existed between Jonathan Edwards and the family of Alexander Edwards. Both were of Welsh origin.

Alexander Edwards having embarked at Bristol, reached America about 1640. He settled in Springfield, where he married 28 February, 1642(3) (28 April, 1642, so Mrs. Bement), Mrs. Sarah (Baldwin) Searle.2 He was one of the founders of... (Source: Strong Genealogy)

2 The wife of Alexander Edwards, Sarah (Baldwin) Searle, has been identified by the eminent genealogist, J. L. Chester, in his research concerning the Baldwins of Aston Clinton. See N. E. H. and G. R., 38. On page 164 he gives the substance of the will of a Richard Baldwin of Cholsbury, weaver, dated 23 May, 1630; the will was proved by his son Timothy 16 May, 1633. He names his wife Isabell; sons, Timothy, Nathaniel, and Joseph; daughter, Mary Pratt, and her daughter Mary, "+ her other 2 children"; daughter Hannah, "+ my other 2 daughters Christian and Sarah." Now there were three Baldwins, Timothy, Nathaniel, and Joseph, in New Haven and later in Milford. They were associated both in New Haven and in Milford with the family of Sylvester Baldwin who came from Aston Clinton, the family having lands in Cholsbury near-by. The identity of names, especially when one of them is the unusual name of Timothy--a unique occurrence in the Baldwin family of Aston Clinton--the association with another branch of the family with whom doubtless they were intimate in England--these considerations make the identification seem certain. The ages of the children are not known, though Joseph, Christian, and Sarah are under twenty-one. Joseph had a wife, Hannah, in Milford, a second wife, Isabel (Ward) Catlin Northam of Hadley, and a third, Elizabeth Hitchcock Warriner of Springfield; his will is dated 26 December, 1680; he died 2 November, 1684, at Northampton. This family illustrates the complicated relations that sometimes ensued from the frequent remarriages in New England. For example, Joseph's daughter Elizabeth was married to James Warriner, son of William and his first wife, Joanna Searle, sister-in-law of Joseph's sister Sarah, while William Warriner's second wife became third wife to Joseph Baldwin. By Chester's conjecture Sarah and Joseph were second cousins to the children of the widow Baldwin. The first of the family certainly identified in England was Richard, whose will was 16 January, 1552(3), though there were other Baldwins of the vicinity for a generation or two earlier, but their relationship cannot be determined. This first Richard had wife, Ellen, children, Henry, John,

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Northampton in 1654. Mrs. Ella Pomeroy Bement, who is twice descended from him, gives many particulars respecting his property. His first home-lot was bounded north on Main Street, west on Pleasant (then Bartlett, from Robert Bartlett, who was there killed by the Indians and buried in front of his house, 14 March, 1676); this lot was later part of the homestead of Governor Caleb Strong. In 1660 he moved to the corner of West and Green Streets, his house being near the present Plymouth Hall; it was within the palisades erected against the Indians. His land included part of the present site of Forbes Library; that portion of the town was known as Welsh End. He was part owner of the first grist-mill and owned stock in a lead mine. He contributed five acres to be used by the pastor, Mather, to induce settlers. He signed the church covenant at its establishment in 1661. In 1672(3) he contributed eight pounds of flax to Harvard College, less than an eighth in value of the contribution of Joseph Parsons. He died of a prevailing sickness 4 September, 1690; twenty-five died that year, twenty-three the next. His wife must have been a notable woman, perhaps had a widow's charms. Her son, John Searle jr., was tomahawked in the Indian massacre of 1704, but recovered. The family suffered terribly. One of the children, Elisha, was carried to Canada, and returned a man, quite French. Her Edwards children Richard (probably grandfather of Sarah and Joseph), and four daughters. Henry, as shown by his will, 2 January, 1599(1600), by his wife Alice had children, Richard, Sylvester, John, Robert, and three daughters; this Sylvester was father to the immigrant Sylvester who died on the ship Martin in 1638; in his will he named children, Sarah (who afterwards was married to Benjamin Fenn), Richard, Mary, Martha, John, and Ruth. To go back to the second Richard; except for what is learned from his father's will nothing else is known of him; he was not twenty-three in 1552(3), and he inherited lands and tithes in Cholsbury; he is not mentioned in later wills; he must have been dead by the date of his mother's will, 1565(6), a young man, leaving perhaps an only son, the Richard whose will names Timothy, Joseph, and Sarah. The family was of considerable wealth, Henry acquiring the title to Dundridge Manor, of which his father was tenant, in 1577(8). In the next century another Henry's son Edward gets the grant of a coat of arms.

Sarah Baldwin was married to John Searle 19 March, 1639. He died, leaving one child, John, in September, 1641.

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were eight in number, ages not certain: The eldest son, Samuel, was ancestor of Justin Edwards, divine, president Andover 1836-1842, also of Bela Bates, another Andover scholar, 1837 ff. There were three other sons, Benjamin, Joseph, and Nathaniel. There were four daughters, Sarah, who married Joseph North; Mary, who married John Field; Hannah, who married Samuel Davis, died 1690, the mother of John and Samuel Davis; and Elizabeth, who married Samuel Clark, apparently son of William, another of the founders and at the head of church affairs.

This excellent woman's daughters cared more for finery than was thought becoming. The General Court passed several acts against sumptuous dressing. On 27 March, 1676 (King Philip's year), twenty-three persons were presented to the court in Northampton "for wearing silk in a flaunting manner and for long hair and other extravagances contrary to sober order, and demenour not becoming a wilderness state." Among these were three daughters of Edwards, wife of Samuel Davis, Sarah, and Elizabeth, also the wife of John Searle, and the wife of Joseph Edwards; they were kept in countenance by the two daughters of Elder Strong. All were admonished and fined.

Edwards's will is dated 30 August, 1690. It is curiously minute in land descriptions; this too is an interesting detail: "Benjamin and Nathaniel are to have apples from the orchard seven years; also the pine plain, 10 acres, where my house formerly stood." The house had probably been destroyed by Indians. Samuel, Benjamin, and Nathaniel were the executors. Nathaniel and Elizabeth were the youngest children, the only ones born in Northampton.

Benjamin was born in Springfield in 1652. He is listed among the soldiers engaged in the Falls Fight, 19 May, 1676. On 23 February, 1680(1), he married Thankful, daughter of Isaac Sheldon; he died 31 October, 1724. Their children were: Benjamin, whose estate is rated in 1749 at 86œ (two Benjamins are listed for Revolutionary service, perhaps son and grandson of Benjamin jr.); Benjamin jr. was born 15 January, 1681(2), married Mary Clark, 1706, died 1775; Ebenezer (rated 1749 at 106œ) born 18 November, 1682, married 1714, Mary North; Mary, born 1685, married Samuel Phelps; Thankful, born 1688,

(Source: Powers-Banks Ancestry, pp. 77-78)