Adonijah Bidwell

Adonijah Bidwell was the first minister of Housatonic Township No. 1. He played a large role in the formation and upkeep of the Monterey, Massachusetts militia. Classically educated at Yale, he participated in the victorious Louisbourg, Nova Scotia expedition during the third French and Indian War. He is known today in part because his sermons and diary were preserved and give detailed insight into his life.

Adonijah Bidwell was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1716. His father was Thomas Bidwell, a wealthy merchant and store owner involved in the triangular trade. His mother was Prudence Scott, the daughter of Edward Scott of New Haven. The year of Bidwell's birth in 1716, Thomas Bidwell was lost at sea. 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. He was said to be ordained in 1744.

In 1745 he was the chaplain on the William Pepperrell expedition to Louisbourg during King George's War and served on the ship, Defense in 1747. He chaplained other expeditions and ships between 1744 and 1747, and in 1748, accepted an offer to become the first minister of Township No. 1. He also taught at schools during this time; in 1746 at Wintonbury, in 1747 in Simsbury, and in 1747-1748 in West Hartford. He also preached, from 1747-1750 in West Simsbury (now Canton, Connecticut) and in 1749 in Kinderhook, New York.

His house, finished in 1750, was located north of the Township No. 1 Meeting House. The property was known as Deepwood Manse. The church formed on September 25, 1750 and he was installed pastor on October 3.

In 1752, Adonijah Bidwell married Theodosia Colton of Suffield, Connecticut, a poet and the daughter of his former tutor. It was a childless marriage, and lasted until Theodosia's death in 1759 of unknown causes. A year after Theodosia died, he married Jemima Devotion of West Hartford, Connecticut, his second wife and a first cousin of Theodosia. They had four children: Adonijah the Younger, Barnabas Bidwell, Jemima Bidwell, and Theodosia Bidwell. Adonijah the Younger inherited the family farm, while Barnabas Bidwell became a member of the United States House of Representatives. He was later accused of embezzling money and fled to Canada. Jemima Devotion died in 1771. One year later, Reverend Bidwell married Ruth Kent of Suffield, Connecticut to take care of his four children. Ruth outlived the Reverend. After Adonijah's death, she married a Jonathan Judd, a second widower who was also a minister in Great Barrington. Upon his death in 1815, she lived with her brother and died at the age of 85.

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