Adonijah Bidwell was born on October 18, 1716 in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut. The son of Thomas Bidwell,[2] a wealthy merchant involved in the triangular trade, Adonijah had a comfortable childhood. As a young adult, Adonijah Bidwell attended Yale College and graduated in 1740. He was intermittently a teacher, a chaplain for the British and colonial expeditions to Canada and, finally, a full-time minister for Township No. 1 in Monterey, Massachusetts.

You can read several of his sermon notes in the Congragational Library and Archives online, as well as his personal journal while Chaplain of a fleet on an expedition to Cape Breton.

He married (1) Theodocia Bidwell of Suffield, Connecticut, a poet, who died in 1759; (2) Jemima Bidwell of West Hartford, Connecticut, a first cousin of Theodosia, who died in 1771, and (3) Ruth Judd of Suffield, Connecticut. His third wife, Ruth, outlived him and married Jonathan Judd, a widower, also a minister.

Adonijah died on June 2, 1784 in Monterey, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States at the age of 68, leaving the farm and 1/3 of his possessions to his eldest son, Adonijah the Younger, as well as 1/3 of his worldly possessions to both Barnabas and widow Ruth.

No children by first and third marriages.

Children by his second wife, Jemima Devotion:

1. Adonijah Bidwell;
2. Barnabas Bidwell;
3. Jemima Partridge;
4. Theodocia Bidwell.

Sources

• "Adonijah Bidwell" in Wikipedia
• Find A Grave