Background
Dwight was the fifth son of Yale College President Timothy Dwight IV and his wife Mary Woolsey, born in Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Dwight was the fifth son of Yale College President Timothy Dwight IV and his wife Mary Woolsey, born in Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Connecticut.
He graduated Yale in 1803, was a tutor there in 1806–1810, and successfully practised law in New Haven, Connecticut in 1810–1816.
For seveal years during this time, he worked ten hours each day preparing an exhaustive "Geography". Licensed to preach in 1816, he served as the Chaplain of the Senate of the United States for one year's term (December 16, 1816—December 19, 1817). Thereafter, he served as pastor of the Park Street Church, Boston, in 1817–1826, where he greatly influenced the young hymn writer and clergyman Ray Palmer (1808—1887), author of "My Faith Looks Up to Thee", among others.
In 1833—1835 he was president of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. His career was wrecked by accidental mercury poisoning, which interfered with his work in Boston and at Hamilton College, and made his life after 1839 solitary and comparatively uninfluential.
Married Susan Edwards Daggett, August 28, 1811.