printed in Usher Parsons, The Life of Sir William Pepperrell (Boston, 1855), 252. Pepperrell
Notes to Pages 402–3 ∑∫≥
20. Edwards to Oliver, October 1752, Works, 16: 534 reports the incident. Abigail Dwight to Thomas Williams, November 1, 1752, in Wright, Colonel Ephraim Williams, 67. (September 2, 1752, was followed by September 14.)
21. In late November Brigadier Dwight presented to the Massachusetts General Court the report of the legislature's committee to oversee the mission. The committee, made up of Dwight and a nonresident ally, alleged that the mission had been going as well as could be hoped under Captain Kellogg until the disastrous interference by Edwards in introducing Gideon Hawley. Edwards and Hawley, supported by Timothy Woodbridge, who had the Indians' ear, undermined Kellogg's work with ''violent opposition, a√ronts, and abuses'' and defied the e√orts of the committee to restore good order (This was Dwight's version of the three-hour shouting match with Hawley.) Multiple managements were destroying the school and the Mohawks were leaving, partly for that reason and partly because of the recent European craze for ginseng root, the profits from which lured them to the forests. The only hope for the schools was to rid them of the outside influence (i.e., Edwards). Dwight and Ashley, Report to General Court, November 22, 1752, MA. Edwards agreed that ginseng was part of the problem.
Edwards received full intelligence of these goings-on, probably from Timothy Woodbridge, still Stockbridge's representative in the Assembly. Anticipating Dwight's attack, Woodbridge presented a rebuttal signed by the male heads of almost every English and Mahican family in Stockbridge. Kevin Sweeney, ''River Gods and Related Minor Deities: The Williams Family and the Connecticut River Valley, 1637–1790'' (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1986), 477, referring to ''a rebuttal'' in MA, 32: 365–74. Edwards reported that two Stockbridge Indians told him that they had been taken by Captain Kellogg to Wethersfield and that there Elisha Williams and others had told them they had a bad minister and urged them to sign a petition against him, plying them with wine to do so. Edwards to Oliver, April 12, 1753, Works, 16: 590.
22. Joseph Dwight had indeed delivered a letter from Elisha Williams to Sir William Pepperrell, dated August 29, 1753, urging Pepperrell to write to Joseph Paice, one of the mission's principal promoters in London, in support of Dwight versus Edwards (concerning whose shortcomings Dwight was to fill in Pepperrell) from Williamsiana Collections, Williams College, as transcribed by George Claghorn.
23. Edwards to Pepperrell, January 30, 1753, Works, 16: 553–63. Cf. Edwards to Hubbard, March 19, 1753, Works, 16: 564–76, a more formal refutation of Dwight's charges, designed to be read to the legislature. Edwards had earlier written regarding his alleged ''sti√ness, etc.'' to Secretary Josiah Willard, July 17, 1752, Works, 16: 509–10.
24. Edwards to Elizabeth Scott Williams, October 30, 1755, Works, 16: 677. The occasion of this revealing letter is that shortly after the death of Elizabeth's husband, Elisha Williams, Edwards heard that she was casting aspersions on Edwards' character and temperament. Edwards pled with her to consider that her views might be prejudiced by her late husband and his relatives in America. Edwards, who valued honesty over tact, ended his epistle with brief condolences on the death of ''your honorable consort,'' but said nothing else about his character or role in Edwards' life. Elizabeth Scott Williams, predictably, remained convinced of her earlier opinion, pp. 674–78.
25. Provincial Secretary Josiah Willard to Sir William Pepperrell, February 24, 1753, printed in Usher Parsons, The Life of Sir William Pepperrell (Boston, 1855), 252. Pepperrell to Willard, March 6, 1753, Ibid., 253.