EDWARDS
EDWARDS
EDWARDS, Morgan, historian, was torn in
TrevL'tlian jiiirisli. Mumuoutlishire. Wales, May 9,
lli'i. He was eilucateil under Bernard Foskett,
first president of Bristol college; wa.s ordained to
the Biiptist ministry, June 1. 1857, in Cork, Ire-
land, wliere he labored till 1760; preached one
year at Rye, Sussex, England, and was called to
the lijiptist church in Pljiladelj»hia. Pa., entering
U|x)ii his jvistonite in 17(il. He resigned in 1770
and made his residence in Delaware. During the
Revolution he sympathized with the loyalists.
He afterward travelled extensively through the
country, lecturing. He was the founder of
Rho It' Island college (now Brown imiversity)
througli a movement at the meeting of the Phila-
delphia B;iptist association in 17(52. He also
ojiened tl>e way fi>r the organization of the
various other Bjijjtist institutions of learning. He
was a fellow of Brown university, 17(>4-89, and its
financial agent in Great Britain, 1766-68, where
he obtained funds for its permanent support. He
collected material for a history of the Baptist
church in America l)y personalh^ visiting the
churches in all the Atlantic states. He received
the honorary degree of A.M. from the University
of Pennsylvania in 1762 and from Bro\vn univer-
sity in 1709. He published discourses and ser-
mons; Materials toicard a History of the Baptists in
Pennsylvania (l'il2); and Materials Totmrd a His-
tory of the Baptists in Jersey (1792). He died in
Pencador. Del., Jan. 28, 1795.
EDWARDS, Ninian, senator, was born in Mnnt!,'omery county. Md., in March, 1775. He was .-i sun of Benjamin and Margaret (Beall) Ed- wards. He entered Dickinson college in the class of 1792, but did not complete the course. His father's family re- moved to Bairdsto^vn, Ky., in 1795. and be was elected a rep- resentative in the state legislature be- fore reaching his majority. He was admitted to the Ken- tucky bar in 1798 and to that of Ten- nes.see in 1799. He was clerk and after- ward judge of the general court of Ken- tucky, was elevate<l to the circuit court in 1803, to the court of appeals in 1806 and was made chief justice in 1808. He was apjiointed Kovemor of the territory of Illinois by President Madis*)n ufwn its organization in 1809, and re- mained in office till 1H18 when the territory be- came a state. He organized volunteer rangers
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built stockade forts and prepared for the pro-
tection of the immigrant settlers against Indian
depredations. In 1816 he was one of three com-
missioners appointed to treat with Indian tribes.
Upon the organization of the new state govern-
ment he was elected a U.S. senator and drew the
short term. He served through the IStli congress
and was re-elected for a full term in 1819. He
resigned in 1824 to accept the apjwintment of
minister to Mexico. Mr. Edwards reached New
Orleans en route to his post when he was recalled
by President Monroe, charges having been made
against him by the secretary of the treasury, and
he was succeeded by J. McLean, who completed
his term. On his return to Illinois he was
elected governor of the state and served 1826-30.
His son, Ninian Wirt, was the first state .superin-
tendent of schools for Illinois, 1854. His brother
Cyrus, 1793-1877, was for thirty -eight years a
trustee of Shurtleff college from which he re-
ceived the degree of LL. D. Another brother, Dr.
Benjamin F., 1797-1877, was an original trustee
of Shurtleff in 1836. He published: The Life and
Times of Xinian Edwards and History of Illinois
(1870) : and The Edirnrds Papers (1884). Governor
Edwards died at Belleville. III.. July 20, 1833.
EDWARDS, Ninian Wirt, lawyer, was born near Frankfort, Ky. .April 15, 1809; son of Ninian Edwards, at the time chief justice of the court of appeals of Kentucky. He removed with his father to Kaskasia, 111. , when yet an infant. He was educated at Transylvania university, pur- sued a course of law there and was graduated LL.B. in 1833. While a student he was married, Feb. 16, 1832, to Elizabeth P., daughter of Robert S. Todd and sister of Mary Todd, who became the wife of Abraham Lincoln. He was admitted to the bar in 1833 and in 1834 was appointed by Governor Reynolds attorney -general of Illinois. He resigned in 1835 and removed to Springfield, lU. He was a representative in the Illinois legis- lature, 1836-52, a member of the convention tliat framed tlie state constitution of 1848, and with Abraham Lincoln and otliers he advocated the removal of the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield in 1837. He was appointed by Gov- ernor Matteson in 1854 attorney for the state before the board of commissioners appointed to investigate the claims of canal contractors amounting to over $1,500,000, and the same year was made state superintendent of public instruc- tion, the first to hold that office in the state. The state legislature retained him in this office three years and he drafted the free .school law, first adopted by the state. He was U.S. commissary of subsistence with the rank of major from August, 1861. to June 22, 1865. He then retired from public life and from the prac- tice of his profession. Abraham Lincoln was
