155:. Tuttle was involved in a sex scandal with the birth of her first child Mary, who was an "early baby", born seven months after their marriage. Within their first year of marriage, the couple was brought before the Hartford magistrates and were fined for having conceived a child out of wedlock. It was rumored that she not only had premarital sexual relations with Richard, but also with a man named Joseph Preston, the son of wealthy businessman. Richard denied being the father of the baby, but the magistrates found that he was the father and they were forced to remain married. Elizabeth and Richard stayed married for twenty-four years and had more children. Tuttle's children were Mary, Timothy, Abigail, Elizabeth, Ann, Martha, and Mabel. Like Tuttle, Edwards had received a good education. Having received an "ample" inheritance, he was able to provide a good education for his children.
203:
series of traumas. Her marriage to
Richard Edwards was troubled because of class differences between the two and because of a baby born seven months after the marriage, whom Richard suspected was not his. Then, 10 years after Elizabeth’s marriage, her brother Benjamin inexplicably murdered their sister Sarah. Elizabeth’s grief, anxiety, and depression caused her marriage to break apart: Richard depicted her as having failed to fulfill her duties as a wife and divorced her, a serious blow in a society where a woman’s role was defined by family. Recovering a lost chapter of early American intellectual and religious history, Chamberlain reveals not a harridan but a woman whose life was ruined by wrong choices and inconsolable griefs.
139:...ladylike refinement in apparel and household appointments. That she was a faithful and true wife and mother we have good reason to believe. All her twelve children were reared to maturity amid privations, dangers and trials, of which the mothers of the present day can hardly form a conception, and which very few indeed would have the courage to face or the strength to endure. In her widowhood, heavy afflictions were added to her weight of years, but the religious faith and hope which she publicly professed in her youth, no doubt supported her as nothing else could do through all the dark and troubled way, and unto the end.
171:. The couple was divorced on October 8, 1691, which was "almost without parallel" at the time. In the 17th century, women who were mentally ill were removed from the house while remaining married to their husbands. If a couple wanted to divorce, the church councils came up with compromise solutions to avoid breaking up marriages. In Tuttle's case, the divorce was granted about the time that Tuttle's sister Mercy committed murder. In 1692, Richard Edwards married a second time to Mary Talcott, with whom he had an affair. He became rich due to connections made through his second wife's prosperous family.
132:. William was not accepted by the church there, which was problematic because church membership was a prerequisite for owning property in Charlestown. In 1636, his wife Elizabeth was accepted at the church in Boston. William helped establish the community now known as New Haven. On June 4, 1639, William signed the first covenant of the new colony. He was a farmer, merchant, part owner of a trading vessel, and a land owner in New Haven and the neighboring North Haven and East Haven communities. He served the community as a constable and a member of many town commissions.
235:
During
Benjamin's trial, it was recorded that he murdered his sister in "a fit of rage". At the end of the trial, Benjamin Tuttle was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged in Hartford on June 13, 1677. This wasn't the only horrific crime to take place within the Tuttle family. On the morning of June 23, 1691 Mercy Tuttle, one of Elizabeth Tuttle's younger sisters, murdered her seventeen-year-old son with an axe. She was convicted in October 1691, but was found "
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a bigoted religion he displayed an almost overwhelming intellection vigor. A queer strain ran through the family. His grandson was Aaron Burr who killed
Alexander Hamilton. His grandmother was Elizabeth Tuttle, who was divorced by her husband for adultery, an unspeakable scandalous occurrence in that epoch. Elizabeth's sister murdered her child, and her brother was a murderer, too.
167:
Talcott. In 1691, Richard successfully filed for divorce, on the grounds of "adultery and other immoralities". Astounding the citizens of
Hartford, "Richard Edwards stood alone against the law, the ministry, the social standards of his time, and by sheer persistence and the weight of his own adamantine convictions forced an eventual victory," according this his biographer
202:
Chamberlain, a professor of history at Wright State in Ohio, searches for clues to the identity of
Elizabeth Tuttle and recreates a mesmerizing drama of the breakdown of one family in a society bound by stringent concerns for order in family and society. Chamberlain reveals that Tuttle went through a
309:
Yet, in this hour of its decay, Puritanism produced its most profound intellection—its great philosopher—like one of those curious flowers which bloom only when their roots are dying. Jonathan
Edwards was to Puritanism what Herbert Spencer was to the philosophy of rationalism. On the narrow plane of
262:
Between Tuttle and
Richard Edwards, she was considered to have been the ancestor with notable descendants. Edwards had married a second time and had five sons and one daughter with Mary Talcott. According to Clarence Darrow, "None of Mary Talcott's progeny rose above mediocrity and their descendants
234:
There were horrific murders that members of the Tuttle family committed. In 1676 Benjamin Tuttle, one of
Elizabeth's younger brothers, murdered their sister Sarah by striking her in the head with an axe. Her children were present during the attack. This crime was a shock to the entire Tuttle family.
166:
Her husband claimed that she withheld sex from him and he tried to divorce her beginning in 1689. Richard claimed that Tuttle admitted that she had sex with another man before their marriage. He also contended that his wife sold alcohol to Native
Americans. By this time, he had an affair with Mary
120:
as the eighth of twelve children born to
William and Elizabeth Tuttle. Their twelve children were John, Hannah, Thomas, Jonathan, David, Joseph, Sarah, Elizabeth, Simon, Benjamin, Mercy, and Nathaniel. She was named after her mother, who she looked to as a good example of a Puritan "goodwife". Most
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general, and other noted individuals. Clarence Darrow reported in 1925 that her descendants included 12 college presidents, 265 college graduates, 65 college professors, 60 physicians, 100 clergymen, 75 army officers, 60 prominent authors, 100 lawyers, 30 judges, 80 public officers, 3 governors,
158:
In many ways Tuttle was a goodwife to her husband, but she became increasingly upset after one brother suffered a mental breakdown and when two murders were committed by two of her siblings. It became difficult for Tuttle to tend to her relationship with her husband. Jonathan Edwards' biographer
221:
Those in the Tuttle party included Elizabeth Tuttle's grandmother Isabella Tuttle and her three sons and their families: the eldest son Richard Tuttle and his wife Anne and their three children, John Tuttle and his wife Joan and their four children as well as four children from Joan's previous
69:". Her dreams of running her own flouring household, like her mother, were ruined when she married Richard Edwards and was entangled in a sex scandal. The couple were married for 24 years and had six children. Rare for the time, Tuttle was divorced by her husband in 1691 for adultery.
226:, a colony about thirty miles outside of Boston. Seeing the successes of his brothers, William Tuttle tried to secure a strong foothold for his family. When he was unable to gain church membership, he moved his family to New Haven in 1639. This event broke his ties with his brothers.
222:
marriage, and William Tuttle and his wife Elizabeth and their three young children. Once the Tuttle's arrived, Richard and John became prominent members of colonial society. Richard was elected constable in Boston in 1638. John Tuttle became a leading member in
259:. She was described as a beautiful, intelligent and strong-willed women, with little "moral sense" and was mentally unstable. She was said to have "had the nervous, sensitive and excitable temperament of a genius."
756:
Richard Edwards (sheriff's deputy) of Hartford colony of Connecticut, his account book from September 1, 1753, to May 9, 1754, with an introduction and ancestral record, by Frank D. Andrews ...
121:
of her siblings' misbehavior in their adolescence caused them to attract negative attention from the town authorities. Elizabeth and her siblings had received thorough and intense educations.
182:
Tuttle's story came to light after an account of her divorce was published in 1883, and as the result of research conducted for biographies about her grandson Jonathan Edwards. During the
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194:. Some considered her the "crazy grandmother" and sexual deviant, and others thought her to be a wonderful woman. In its review of Ava Chamberlain's nonfiction book
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stated in 1940 that she was subject to mental illness and engaged in repeated events of infidelity and perversity throughout their marriage.
988:"The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards by Mary Chamberlain, Ava Ava Chamberlain"
1130:
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with bachelor's and master's degrees, which was considered remarkable at the time. For 59 years, he was the pastor of the church in
274:. Her daughters – Abigail Soughton, Elizabeth Remind, Ann Richardson, and Mabel Bigelow – had distinguished descendants, including
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They traveled with William's brothers and their families and his mother Isabella. William and Elizabeth settled initially in
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According to Ola Elizabeth Winslow, Tuttle's first child (Mary) went to live with Elizabeth Tuttle's father in New Haven.
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in what is now the state of Connecticut. She was brought up in a financially stable home and raised to be a Puritan "
1190:
252:
129:
77:
271:
183:
104:, Vice President of the United States, were said to have inherited defects of her character. Her grandson was
839:"Review of The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards"
680:"Review of The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards"
496:"Review of The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards"
223:
117:
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302:, Vice President of the United States, were noted for their inheritance of the defects of her character.
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mayors and State officials, 3 congressmen, 2 United States senators, and 1 Vice President." Descendants
168:
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149:
124:
William, Elizabeth, and their first three children arrived in New England on June 7, 1635, on board the
1160:
152:
289:, whose descendants included many presidents of noted universities, a founder of a law school, an
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On November 19, 1667, at the age of twenty-two, Elizabeth Tuttle married Richard Edwards, a young
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The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards
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The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards
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The descendants of William and Elizabeth Tuttle, who came from old to New England in 1635
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After her divorce in 1691, very little is known about Elizabeth Tuttle or her death.
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84:, having been the ancestor of many great leaders and educators. Descendants include
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987:
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Elizabeth Tuttle's family arrived in New England on June 7, 1635, on board the
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976:. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (reprint). pp. 5, 7.
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Her mother, Elizabeth Tuttle, died on December 30, 1684, at 76 years of age.
239:" in 1693 and was believed to have spent the rest of her life incarcerated.
357:
Some sources state that Richard Edwards was a lawyer. Based upon research,
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973:
The descendants of William Edwards, colonist to Connecticut colony, 1639
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897:"The Problem of Authority in the Writing of Early American History"
324:
The Eugenics movement was largely discredited following the end of
116:
Elizabeth Tuttle was born in 1645 and baptized in November 1645 in
92:, presidents of noted universities, a founder of a law school, an
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1008:
733:
731:
729:
1140:
Tuttle, George Frederick; Tuttle, George Frederick (1883).
947:. Vol. 6, no. 22. Sunway Media. pp. 149, 152
476:
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition, and American Culture
417:
415:
413:
411:
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61:(1645–1691 or after) was a Puritan woman who lived in the
108:, a revivalist preacher known as "America's theologian".
72:
Tuttle and her descendants were subjects in the field of
135:
Her mother, Elizabeth Tuttle, was described as having:
640:. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Co. pp. 34–37.
478:. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 1.
41:
33:
25:
18:
1077:(26). Boston University, School of Education: 708.
344:Some of William Tuttle's land is now part of the
549:. National Americana Society. 1912. p. 341.
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305:Of the family, William E. Woodward stated:
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769:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
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453:. New York, Arno Press. pp. 225–228.
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1146:. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle & Company.
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361:thought it unlikely that he was a lawyer.
51:American woman and eugenics study subject
1091:George Washington, the image and the man
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317:George Washington, the image and the man
285:She is a noted ancestor of her grandson
895:Anderson, Fred; Cayton, Andrew (2009).
489:
487:
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247:Tuttle was studied within the field of
762:
837:Coughlin, Michelle Marchetti (2013).
388:See Wiktionary for the definition of
7:
1094:. New York, Liveright. p. 145.
447:Davenport, Charles Benedict (1972).
266:Tuttle's son Timothy graduated from
1067:"Have We Over-emphasized Heredity?"
213:Immigration to the British colonies
1166:People from New Haven, Connecticut
198:(2012), Publishers Weekly states:
186:her story piqued the interests of
14:
1181:People from Hartford, Connecticut
1176:Sex scandals in the United States
1065:Mehus, O. Myking (June 29, 193).
939:Darrow, Clarence (October 1925).
1186:People from colonial Connecticut
759:Vineland, New Jersey. p. 3.
494:Stein, Jordan Alexander (2013).
450:Heredity in relation to eugenics
941:"The Edwardses and the Jukeses"
791:Winslow, Ola Elizabeth (1940).
263:gained no abiding reputation."
57:also known by her married name
901:The William and Mary Quarterly
243:Elizabeth Tuttle's descendants
1:
1125:. New York University Press.
1088:Woodward, William E. (1972).
678:Yeager, Jonathan M. (2013).
563:Redfield, Casper L. (1916).
474:Conforti, Joseph A. (1995).
970:Smith, Elizur Yale (1941).
280:Declaration of Independence
242:
90:Declaration of Independence
1212:
581:10.1177/002205741608401402
253:Charles Benedict Davenport
78:Charles Benedict Davenport
1119:Chamberlain, Ava (2012).
843:The New England Quarterly
753:Edwards, Richard (1924).
696:10.1017/S0009640713000954
637:The ordeal of prohibition
634:Darrow, Clarence (1925).
500:Early American Literature
272:East Windsor, Connecticut
992:www.publishersweekly.com
820:Tuttle & Tuttle 1883
808:Tuttle & Tuttle 1883
622:Tuttle & Tuttle 1883
569:The Journal of Education
59:Elizabeth Tuttle Edwards
184:Colonial Revival period
37:c. 1691 (about aged 46)
322:
205:
141:
1171:17th-century Puritans
315:William E. Woodward,
169:Ola Elizabeth Winslow
161:Ola Elizabeth Winslow
1196:American eugenicists
1071:Journal of Education
945:The American Mercury
855:10.1162/TNEQ_r_00330
565:"Education Extended"
881:– via JSTOR.
722:– via JSTOR.
599:– via JSTOR.
522:– via JSTOR.
291:American Civil War
276:Robert Treat Paine
94:American Civil War
86:Robert Treat Paine
1191:American Puritans
1101:978-0-87140-806-8
994:. August 13, 2012
797:. pp. 18–19.
653:, pp. 2, 55.
612:, pp. 27–29.
460:978-0-405-03946-1
237:non compos mentis
208:The Tuttle family
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296:Pierpont Edwards
287:Jonathan Edwards
278:, signer of the
175:Death and legacy
106:Jonathan Edwards
98:Pierpont Edwards
88:, signer of the
63:New Haven Colony
55:Elizabeth Tuttle
20:Elizabeth Tuttle
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268:Harvard College
257:Clarence Darrow
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45:Richard Edwards
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849:(4): 702–704.
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690:(3): 732–734.
684:Church History
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996:. Retrieved
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949:. Retrieved
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1161:1645 births
575:(14): 370.
188:eugenicists
130:Charlestown
1155:Categories
998:2022-11-20
951:2022-11-19
907:(3): 482.
400:References
300:Aaron Burr
112:Early life
102:Aaron Burr
913:0043-5597
879:147533090
863:0028-4866
765:cite book
720:162442990
704:0009-6407
597:220780058
546:Americana
512:0012-8163
118:New Haven
96:general.
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520:24476344
390:harridan
313:—
249:eugenics
219:Planter.
150:Hartford
144:Marriage
126:Planter.
74:Eugenics
67:goodwife
348:campus.
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230:Murder
153:cooper
42:Spouse
917:JSTOR
875:S2CID
867:JSTOR
716:S2CID
708:JSTOR
593:S2CID
585:JSTOR
516:JSTOR
332:Notes
1127:ISBN
1096:ISBN
909:ISSN
859:ISSN
771:link
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455:ISBN
298:and
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26:Born
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