Solomon Stoddard (September 27, 1643, baptized October 1, 1643 – February 11, 1729) was the pastor of the First Church of Christ 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 known as the "Puritan Pope of the Connecticut River valley" and 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 the first librarian at Harvard University and the first person in American history known by that title.
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. Yet what started as an insult from Increase Mather changed as his presbyterian influences over Congregational church government grew. 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).
Although in acknowledging his grandfather as a "sort of deity", Edwards minimised his influence over Northampton, being dismissive of the oracle who had caused great wounds and split the church. Nevertheless, years later Timothy Dwight would assess his impact as more profound than any other clergyman over a thirty-year period.
Stoddard was born in Boston on September 26, 1643, to Anthony Stoddard, a wealthy Boston merchant, and Mary Downing (sister of Sir George Downing (after whom Downing Street in London is named), niece to Governor John Winthrop). He was baptized on October 1 at the First Church, Boston. As such, he was born into the highest stratum of aristocratic New England, but his mother died suddenly in June 1647, when he was still an infant.
He attended Cambridge Grammar School, probably the best one in New England "to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for Universities", "under the most reputable" Elijah Corlet, Oxon MA.
Going up in 1658 he aimed to "lead an honest, sober and Godly life," permitted to speak only Latin, "diligently avoid being inoffensive in word or gesture." In the rigid disciplinary world of the Puritan Theocracy, alcohol was forbidden, except for a weak beer, as was tobacco. The "poenal laws" included expulsion for blasphemy and "prophanation of the Lords Day Ordinances". He graduated BA from this "elite gathering" at Harvard College in July 1662. The MA during the next three years was 'Puritan casuistry' becoming an expert in a systematic study of theology adhering to the fundamentals of Holy Scripture. Rational theology was not pure Calvinism, but divined from Covenant; it resembled philosophy, offering a distilled thesis of disputation.
A Fellow and Tutor of Harvard Corporation for a year, he was then chosen in March 1667, to be 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:
March 27, 1667, "Mr Solomon Stoddard was chosen Library keeper." "For the rectifying of ye Library & Rules for the Library Keeper", sixteen "orders were made." "No person resident in the College, except an Overseer", and "no Schollar in the College, under a Senior", could borrow a book, and "no one under master of Art (unless it be a fellow) ... without the allowance of the President."
It was there that he studied the British Presbyterian history with a maverick perspective on order from chaos. To improve his health, Stoddard went to Barbados and served as a chaplain to Governor Daniel Searle from 1667 to 1669. But he soon felt the need to return to New England. As he prepared to depart from Boston for a position in England, he received a call from Northampton Church to stand in for the recently deceased Eleazar Mather, brother of Increase Mather. He accepted the offer, and relocated to Northampton, which in 1670 was on the frontier. Within a few months, Stoddard had married Mather's widow Esther (née Esther, daughter of Rev. John Warham, of Windsor, CT; c. 1644 - February 10, 1736), moved into his house, and took over his pulpit to become Northampton's second minister. He held the post for 55 years, during which time he and Esther produced thirteen children: John, Solomon, Samuel, Solomon, Anthony (d.infant), Anthony, Aaron, Israel, Mary, Christian, Sarah, Esther, Hannah.
Stoddard was pastor of a group ministry of churches at Dorchester, Roxbury, and Springfield as well as Northampton, purchased from the Indians in 1653.
Although well versed in the Latin and Hebrew of the Boston Puritan elite, he preferred to use the common language of the frontier in his sermons. A sense of the frontier life may be gleaned from his proposal in 1703 to use dogs "to hunt Indians as they do Bears", the argument being that dogs would catch many an Indian who would be too light of foot for the townsmen. This was not considered inhumane, for the Indians, in Stoddard's view, "act like wolves and are to be dealt with as wolves." Three years later, Massachusetts passed an act for the raising of dogs to better secure the frontier borders.
Stoddard is credited with propounding the Half-way Covenant, at Northampton on 18 April 1661. while young Elezear Mather was the pastor. It represented a reaffirmation of the Communion rules that accompanied a decline of piety in the Congregational church. Stoddard's interest was to insure the growth of church congregations in a colony of second-generation pilgrims who were increasingly interested in the political and economic life of the frontier, as opposed to the pure idealism of their immigrant parents. Stoddard taught that people who had grown up in the church and were not scandalous in behavior could receive communion as a means of grace; and have their children baptized, despite the fact that the Puritan tradition had previously required prospective members of the church to proclaim a spiritual "conversion". Eleazer Mather opposed the Covenant as contrariwise to the Cambridge Platform of 1648, voted against the innovations of Synod of 1662. When in 1669, Mather died, the Northampton Church declared: "to rest contented with that share and portion of privilege belonging to them that are only in a state of Education in Christ's House...and have their children baptized." That was the position when Stoddard took over the congregation. At a meeting on August 1670, Solomon was promised 20 acres of land, but then offered £100 instead. And eventually setting on four acres to build a house, to be funded by a Ministers Rate of 2s 6d.
Stoddard was ordained as pastor of Northampton on the strength of a Letter of Recommendation (Feb 7, 1672) from Rev John Strong, regional convenor of the Congregational Church in neighbouring towns of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Subscribing to the Doctrine of Faith, the Half-Way Covenant was put in place was an essential prerequisite to installment. Mather's orthodox Puritanism had witnessed declining numbers, yet Stoddard was able to revitalise the church through liberal reforms.