Solomon Stoddard

Solomon Stoddard (September 27, 1643, baptized October 1, 1643 – February 11, 1729) was the pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He succeeded Rev. Eleazer Mather, and later married his widow around 1670. Stoddard significantly liberalized church policy while promoting more power for the clergy, decrying drinking and extravagance, and urging the preaching of hellfire and the Judgment. The major religious leader of what was then the frontier, he was concerned with the lives (and the souls) of second-generation Puritans. The well-known theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was his grandson, the son of Solomon's daughter, Esther Stoddard Edwards.

Stoddard was an influential religious leader in colonial New England, and was the grandfather of the prominent theologian Rev. Jonathan Edwards. For 55 years, Stoddard occupied an unparalleled position in the Connecticut River Valley region of Massachusetts. His theology was not widely accepted in Boston, but was popular on the frontier. Opponents sometimes referred to him as "Pope" Stoddard, rhetorically placing him in the locally detested camp of the Roman Catholic Church. Stoddard insisted that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be available to all who lived outwardly pious lives and had a good reputation in the community, even if they weren't full members of the church. This was his attempt to save his church from a "dying religion", and was the cause of great theological controversy in 18th century New England (see also Halfway Covenant). His ideas covered a wide variety of topics, often contrasting with mainstream Puritan thought and foreshadowing modern theological thought.

Solomon Stoddard was born in Boston on September 26, 1643 to Anthony Stoddard, a wealthy Boston merchant, and Mary Downing (sister of Sir George Downing (for whom Downing Street in London is named), niece to Governor John Winthrop). As such, he was born into the highest stratum of aristocratic New England. He graduated from Harvard College in 1662; shortly thereafter, he became the "first American librarian known to history by that title" when he was appointed "Library keeper", and Library Laws were enacted specifying that he should keep the Library "duly swept" and the books "clean and orderly." The following is found in the records of Harvard College:

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