History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

1750.] DISMISSAL OF REV. JONATHAN EDWARDS. 227
A Doubtful Asser- It has been many times asserted that at last
t'O"- tlie precinct voted no longer to hear Mr.
Edwards preach. His farewell sermon was
delivered July 1, 1750. After that he was engaged by the
committee to preach whenever he was in town, but as he
says, only "when no one else could be obtained, and only
from Sabbath to Sabbath. " " 'At length,' observes Dr. Hop-
kins, ' great uneasiness was manifested by many people of
Northampton, that Mr. Edwards should preach there at
all. Upon which the committee for supplying the pulpit,
called the town together to know their minds with respect
to that matter ; when they voted that it was not agreeable
to their minds that he should preach among them.'"' ^
Not Justified by While it may be possible that such a meetthe
Records.
|j^g -^^s held and such a vote passed, the
records of both precinct and town are silent
concerning the matter. The exact date of this meeting is
not given, but it is generally understood that it took place
in the latter part of the month of November, 1750. Precinct
meetings were held in that month, and at one of them
it was voted "to pay Mr. Edwards £10 old tenor, per Sabbath
for the time he preached here since he was dismissed,"
but there is nothing on record concerning a determination
to hear him preach no more. If at any meeting such a
vote was passed, it must have been at one hastily summoned
by the committee, in such an informal manner that
no record of its proceedings was ever made. Certain
formalities were required to establish the legality of any
town or precinct meeting, and while it is doubtful whether
any meeting called in accordance with the usually pre-
scribed formula, ever passed such a vote, it is still barely
possible that it may have been omitted from the records.
It is not to be asserted that Dr. Hopkins, who was familiar
with all the proceedings of the time, though not settled in
Hadley till four years after the dismissal of Mr. Edwards,
would deliberately falsify in such a matter, yet there seems
to be the shadow of a doubt resting upon that statement.
If any such opinion was ever expressed by the people of
Northampton, it was undoubtedly instigated by the at-
1 Dwighfs Life of Edwards, p. 418.