Northampton, Massachusetts
An inland town of Massachusetts where Jonathan Edwards was pastor. He described the awakening there in 1734 and 1735 in a letter printed with a preface dated 1737.
Jonathan Edwards describes Northampton as an inland town, far from the sea-ports and in a corner of the country, whose first minister was ordained in 1669, and he says that its church had about six hundred and twenty communicants after the awakening (Edwards, Faithful Narrative section 1). George Whitefield reached it by crossing the ferry from Hadley on 17 October 1740 (Whitefield, Journal seventh journal, pp. 47–49). See the Great Awakening.
What happened here
- 1734 to 1743, firm dateThe Great Awakening
A revival in Jonathan Edwards’s congregation at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1734 and 1735 becomes known through his printed account. In 1740 George Whitefield preaches to great crowds in New England, and Charles Chauncy of Boston answers that much of the stir is disorder.