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Matching family tree profiles for Mary (Porter) Edwards
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About Mary (Porter) Edwards
Highlights
- Daughter of the Hon. Eleazar and Sarah (Pitkin) Porter
- Wife of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards II
- Married the Rev. Edwards October 4, 1770
- Mother of one son and two daughters
- Beloved in town; "amiable and excellent"
- Drowned in riding accident travelling into countryside
- Largest funeral procession in town at that point
- Buried in plot 121D+ at Center Church Crypt
According to her profile on the Center Church Crypt website, Mary provides a
classic case of having lots of material on the man but little on the woman. On her gravestone we learn that Mary was "amiable and excellent."
Tragic Death
Center Church Cryptkeeper M.R. Georgevich has compiled the following information regarding Mary's death:
Papers from the New Haven Colony Historical Society in 1892 describe the scene and aftermath:
She had been riding into the country, on horseback, and had stopped at the pond to allow her beast to drink, when it is supposed it waded into the pond beyond its depth and both the horse and rider were drowned. The sad event greatly excited the community and when Mrs. Edwards was buried in New Haven she was followed to the grave by the largest procession that had ever been seen in that town.
In the History of New Haven County, Connecticut from 1882, it is noted that "she was drowned 'while sitting alone in a chaise, the horse plunging into a mill-pond.'"
The inscription on her tombstone is:
In Memory of
Mrs. Mary Edward
the amiable & excellent
consort of the Rev’d
Mr. Jonathan Edwards
& daughter of ye Hon’bl
Eleazar Porter of
Hadley, who riding
out in a carriage
was accidentally drowned.
References
- Center Church Crypt: Profile of Mary Porter Edwards
- FindAGrave: Mary Porter Edwards
- Rockey, John L., ed. History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Vol. I, p. 301. Published by W. W. Preston of New Haven, 1892.
- New Haven Colony Historical Society. "Inscriptions on Tombstones in New Haven" (see also footnote). Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1892, p. 516.
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Mary (Porter) Edwards's Timeline
| 1748 |
September 16, 1748
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Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut
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| 1772 |
January 5, 1772
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New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States
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| 1773 |
June 22, 1773
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New Haven, New Haven, CT
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| 1776 |
January 30, 1776
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New Haven, New Haven, CT
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| 1782 |
June 24, 1782
Age 33
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Sabine (later Waite's) mill pond, New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut
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| ???? |
Plot 121D+, Crypt at Center Church on the Green (Center Church Crypt), New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut
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