Pierpont Edwards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pierpont Edwards (April 8, 1750-April 5, 1826) was a delegate to the American Continental Congress. He has been described as "a brilliant but erratic member of the Connecticut bar, tolerant in religious matters and bitterly hated by stern Calvinists, a man whose personal morality resembled greatly that of Aaron Burr." Pierpont Edwards was the founder of the Toleration party in Connecticut.

He was born in Northampton, Massachusetts as the 11th and youngest child of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Pierrepont Edwards graduated from Princeton College in 1768, at the age of 18. He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and thereafter was a member of the Connecticut Convention held in January 1788, a convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States.

He was a delegate to Continental Congress from Connecticut, 1787-88, Edwards served as United States Attorney for 17 years until, in 1806, President Thomas Jefferson appointed him as United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut. After the treason of Benedict Arnold he became administrator of that officer's estate.

He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, 1789-90, a judge of United States District Court for Connecticut, 1806 and a delegate to the Connecticut state constitutional convention, 1818.

He died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was interred at Grove Street Cemetery. Pierpont Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio is named for him.^[1]There is a dormitory building at UMass Amherst named after him as well.

He was the uncle of Aaron Burr, Theodore Dwight, and Timothy Dwight IV, and father of Henry W. Edwards and John Stark Edwards.

This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.