The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle

This fascinating revision of the tragic story of Jonathan Edwards' 'crazy grandmother' is one of the most important books in Edwards studies in many years. This book is a must reading for Edwards scholars, historians of gender, sex, power, and mental illness in America, and anyone else interested in New England cultural history. * Sweeney's Booknotes * Chamberlain's book does far more than make a signal contribution to Edwards studies. Even readers with no investment in Edwards will find her book a remarkably reliable and expansive treatment of marriage, family, and gender relations in colonial New England. * The Journal of Religion * The overall result is inspiring. At the very least, her monograph should be appreciated as a foil to the plentiful trade books that roll off the presses each year which show little or no interaction with manuscripts and primary sources, and simply repackage the same stories in a different style of prose. * CHURCH HISTORY * This book will be very valuable for those studying early American history, sociology, and religion. * Choice * Scholarly and careful, Chamberlain tells a vivid story about how history itself is constructed according to each era's own desires. * Boston Sunday Globe * Chamberlain is sure-footed and imaginative as she scampers over the four centuries of the aftermath of a troubled life. -- Bruce C. Daniels * The Journal of American History * For any scholar thinking through the challenges of working with incomplete, inconclusive, or absent archives, the book is both a model and a small triumph. -- Jordan Alexander Stein * Early American Literature * Long before there was Lizzie Borden, there were ax murders, insanity, and torn families in New England. No one has tackled the issues of domestic violence, divorce, murder, and madness in colonial New England in the masterly way that Chamberlain does in this historical detective story. The saga of Elizabeth Tuttle and her extended family sheds a light on the sometimes unpleasant realities of a romanticized past. At every turn, the author grounds the individual tragedies of Elizabeth and her families in the rich context of early modern Anglo-American society, drawing meaning from individual events. Anyone interested in seriously confronting the true past behind Elizabeth's grandson Jonathan Edwards, America's most influential religious figure, must come to grips with this revealing study. -- Kenneth P. Minkema,Executive Editor, Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University This is a lucid, insightful and persuasive publication. Making the most of fragmentary evidence, Chaberlain weaves a compelling and ingenious narrative that challenges the centuries-old myth about Elizabeth Tuttle. This work is an especially necessary corrective to the cottage industry that has generated extensive scholarship on and about Jonathan Edwards over the last several decades; one which tends to focus more often on this minister's theology and ethics than on the social and historical circumstances of his family life....This book will ensure that historical context, family dynamics and gender relations are essential aspects of the Edwardsian legacy. -- Janet Moore Lindman * Women's History Review * With indefatigable thoroughness, lucid prose, and a clear eye for interpersonal dynamics embedded in court records, Ava Chamberlain has left no stone unturned in describing the tragic aspect of the Edwards family's history. Students of colonial New England will find this deep investigation into the life and legacy of Elizabeth Tuttle nothing less than enthralling. -- Amanda Porterfield,Florida State University The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle is a pleasure to read. Its compact size, clear and graceful prose, and layered insights into the enduring nature of American attitudes toward gender and family would make it easily adaptable for classroom use. -- Michelle Marchetti Coughlin * The New England Quarterly * Ava Cham

Ava Chamberlain is Associate Professor of Religion at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She is the editor of The Miscellanies, Nos. 501-832, vol. 18 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards.

[ 1 ] Hardy Puritan Pioneers [ 2 ] Three Struggling Patriarchs [ 3 ] A Brutal Murder [ 4 ] A Criminal Lunatic [ 5 ] A Messy Divorce [ 6 ] The Inheritance [ 7 ] Blood Will Tell