Background
Edward Wigglesworth was born on Feburary 7, 1732 in Cambridge, Massachussets, son of Edward and Rebecca (Coolidge) Wigglesworth and grandson of Michael Wigglesworth.
Edward Wigglesworth was born on Feburary 7, 1732 in Cambridge, Massachussets, son of Edward and Rebecca (Coolidge) Wigglesworth and grandson of Michael Wigglesworth.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1749.
He remained in Harvard College as resident scholar. In 1756 he became interested in raising funds for the new meeting-house for the First Parish, and was one of its heaviest subscribers. He was made tutor in the College in 1764. The next year, upon the death of his father he was appointed successor to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity. On his induction, June 16, 1765, the Corporation sent for him to make sure of his Divinity principles. He was careful to safeguard his orthodoxy by keeping out of all controversy, except for a single sermon against Popery, and attending exclusively to matters of academic life and instruction. He was responsible for the raising of annuities to provide for the widows of ministers and professors, and, although primarily a churchman, he was much interested in civil affairs. His Calculations on American Population (1775) discussed the steady increase of the Colonies' population, owing, according to Wigglesworth, to simple living conditions and early marriage. Of the 3, 250, 000 inhabitants in 1775, he noted, more than 500, 000 were slaves - "to the disgrace of America". This pamphlet made some striking prophesies as to the increase of population; he calculated that the "British Americans, " as he called them, would double their number every twenty-five years, so that at the end of the twentieth century the population would have mounted to nearly one and a half billion. During the Revolution, Wigglesworth was among those who held out hopes for reconciliation until the end. In a period of brilliant pulpit patriotism, he was uncommonly silent. Throughout the war, he was closely concerned with College affairs. Appointed a fellow in 1779, he was acting president in 1780, in the interval between the death of Samuel Langdon and the succession of Joseph Willard. Paralysis forced him to resign all public and private offices in 1791. The Overseers of the College granted him a large annuity and he became a professor emeritus. He died after a long illness.
In October 1765 he married Margaret Hill of Boston, by whom he had three daughters and two sons. She died in 1776; on January 6, 1778, he married Dorothy Sparhawk, who died in 1782; and on October 20, 1785, he married as his third wife Sarah Wigglesworth.