Esdras was almost certainly
born in London during the first half of 1691.
His parents, Johann Esdras Edzard and Agneta Brodermann, lived in or
near London where his father was the pastor of the German Lutheran Church in
Trinity Lane. On 3 July 1691, Esdras
Theodore Edzard was baptized in London, England (unknown church).
He was reared in Fulham
(near London) with two younger brothers: Gustav Jacob Edzard and George
Eberhard Edzard (from their father’s will dated 1713). They were provided an education by both their
father and men he hired as tutors. Their
education was thorough and would have focused on theology and languages – a
family tradition (assumed education content based on family tradition). Having a father who was the leader of a large
and influential church meant they lived comfortably.
His grandparents lived in
Germany. He only knew two grandparents as
his father’s mother and his mother’s father died prior to his birth. The Johann Esdras Edzard family were likely
frequent visits to Germany (several records giving them permission to travel
reveal this fact). Yet in 1707 his
mother’s mother Margaretha Held-Brodermann died and then the next year his
father’s father died. The connection to
Germany had significantly diminished.
When only about 22 and in
the year 1713, Esdras Theodore Edzard’s father Reverend John Esdras Edzard passed
away. His mother Agneta became a widow
and whether she remarried is unknown (his mother was not mentioned in his
father’s will so she may have been deceased; another records reports her death
in 1721). However, Esdras Theodore
Edzard himself married within four years.
His wife was Elizabeth (surname unknown) and by 1717 they were in
Norfolk County, England which was about 100 miles north of London. Their first child of record was Esdras
Theodore Edzard Jr., baptized 24 August 1717 (probably born 1717) at St. Mary’s
Church at Houghton on the Hill Parish in Norfolk County (the record was also
found at North Pickenham where Houghton on the Hill was located; Houghton on
the Hill no longer exists). A second
child George Eleazer Edzard was born about 1717 or early 1718. Sadly, he died and was buried 2 January 1718
(also found 23 January 1718) at All Saints Church, South Pickenham, Norfolk
County, England. George was baptized the
same day he was buried (which meant he was likely very young or just born). Note: The reason Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr.
was in Norfolk County is unknown. His
arrival there could have been for several reasons: 1) following his widowed or
newly married mother, 2) as a clergy man, or 3) because his new wife Elizabeth
was connected to Norfolk County.
St. Mary’s Church in
Houghton in the Hill Parish
All Saints Church, South
Pickenham Parish, Norfolk, England
No records have been found
to establish Esdras Theodore Edzard’s whereabouts between 1718 and 1726. Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr.’s mother Agneta
Edzard is reported to have died in 1721.
A primary source for this record has not been seen and may have been incorrect
(she was not identified in her husband’s will in 1713). In 1726, Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. reappeared
in England clergy records. Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. (known as Edzardus Theodorus Edzardi in the record) was
ordained as a deacon on 5 June 1726 at St. Paul’s Cathedral Church. This action was in the jurisdiction of Edmund
Gibson of London. Four days later, Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. was ordained as priest on 9 June 1726 at the Chapel Royal
Church at St. James’s Place in London.
This action was also performed under Edmund Gibson of London. His movement from deacon to priest in four
days is somewhat unprecedented for an English clergyman seeking an English post
as a minister. Most priests were deacons
for at least one year to more than two years before their promotion. However, the short turnaround from deacon to
priest was status quo for preparing ministers for service in the American
colonies.
Recruitment of English men for
church leadership in the American colonies was made easy because there was an
oversupply of English clergymen. Rather
than risk working toward a career that offered little chance for promotion,
English men often took a chance across the Atlantic. These risk takers generally viewed the
colonial appointment as temporary and merely missionary work. Clergy work in the colonies was not much to
look forward to – modest and normally tardy income, poor living quarters,
scarcity of books, and uncertain job security.
Because Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. would have viewed this assignment as
temporary, his family most likely stayed in England.
On another note, the
connection between an Edzard and the Protestant Church of England is surprising
due to the long Edzard connection to the Non-Protestant Lutheran church. Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr.’s father was a
pastor in the German Lutheran Church but had died in 1713. So likely at some point soon after 1713, Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. became active in the Church of England. Interestingly, the Church of England was not
completely opposed to Lutheranism. They
actually maintained a doctrine that was in agreement to both Lutheran and
Catholic traditions. In other words,
when the Protestant Reformation occurred, the Church of England agreed with
many of the reformation positions.
Note: Esdras Theodore
Edzard Sr. could have lived prior to 1726 in the American colony. For example,
James Maury served the colony’s established church in the colony and sailed to
England in 1742 to seek ordination from Edmund Gibson. He returned soon after his ordination and
took charge of St. John’s Parish in King William County, Virginia. William Douglas was an Englishman serving as
a private tutor in Virginia. He returned
to England, was ordained by Edmund Gibson, was offered the King’s Bounty, and
returned to Virginia as rector for Goochland Parish. These examples provide an alternate
explanation of how and why Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. ended up a minister in
the American colonies and possibly why he has not been found in English records
between 1718 and 1726. However, he is
not found in American records during that time either.
The Bishop of London Edmund
Gibson (1669-1748)
Within a month of being
ordained a priest, Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. (recorded as Esdras Theodor
Edgardi) was appointed a minister on 8 July 1726. The diocese or geographic jurisdiction on the
record was designated as West Indies and the location was to be at the Island
of Virginia. The appointment was once
again within the jurisdiction of Edmund Gibson of London. Also appointed minister on the same day and for
the same location was Thomas Pender. Georgius
Thomas was appointed a month before sending him to the same location. Minister was the designation for the leader
of a church in the American colony.
These ordainments and appointments must have been unique since they were
carried out for leaders of American colony churches.
So at some time before June
1726, Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. was planning to take charge of a Church of
England parish in the American colonies.
On 12 July 1726, just four days after he was appointed minister, he
received the King’s Bounty for Virginia and 20 pounds. A King’s Bounty was given to clergymen
licensed by the Bishop of London Edmund Gibson for passage to the colonies. Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. arranged his own
travel and used the 20 pounds to defray the overall expenses (unless the American
colony parish had raised funds for his travel).
The total one way expense was about 30 pounds for the four week sea
journey.
Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. was
definitely in the American colony by 1727.
Documents report he had settled in King George County, Virginia by 1727
and was the Church of England leader of Hanover Parish, also in King George
County (The Colonial Clergy of Virginia).
Other sources identify Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. as an Episcopal
minister. On 6 February 1727, Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. presented a petition to the Virginia House of Burgesses for
their consideration. According to the
Journal of the House of Burgesses (1727-1734) “The petition of Esdras Theodor
Edzard clerk, Minister of Hanover Parish in King George County, (was presented to
the House) praying that the Vestry of the said parish may be compelled to pay
him for extraordinary services and boarding, and that the Laws concerning
Glebe-Houses may be explained.”
Unfortunately for Edzard, the House of Burgesses resolved that the petition
be rejected.
By 1730, Esdras Theodore
Edzard Sr. appeared to have removed to Maryland, probably due to the hardships
he endured as the leader of Hanover Parish.
He was listed as one of 25 clergy in the Maryland colony in 1730. He was also found to have been rector for
Westminster Parish and headquartered at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church
throughout the early 1730s (1730 until 1734).
Westminster Parish was one of four parishes in Ann Arundel County,
Maryland. The position was left vacant in
1730 by a Reverend Samuel Edgar’s removal (assorted records). Edgar came to Westminster as an unmarried
clergyman holding a previous rectorship for a parish in Virginia. Edgar had been removed from his Virginia
position after being accused of inappropriate drinking habits. Reverend Jacob Henderson of St. Anne’s Parish
wrote a letter to the Bishop of London Edmund Gibson on 27 October 1730 – “Two
clergymen that were drove from Virginia for immoralities have been inducted
here (Maryland), the Revd. Mr. Edzar and the Revd. Mr. Wye. In short our
Governor sticks at nothing. He joyns in
the loud cry of the immoralities of the clergy and, at the same time, rejects
none that come to him.” Possibly related
to that letter was a complain several months earlier (July 1730) by Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. who wrote a letter to Bishop of London Edmund Gibson
complaining of poor treatment by a Reverend Jacob Henderson. Note: Considering Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr.
was rector of Westminster Parish by July 1730 and the Henderson letter written
in October 1730, the reference to Edzar would appear to relate to Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. However, Samuel
Edgar did not leave Maryland after he left Westminster Parish and he retained
rectorships at other Maryland parishes (he was rector at St. Anne’s Parish in
Ann Arundel County by 1744). So, the
Reverend Mr. Edzar that Henderson mentioned was actually “Edgar.”
The location of Charles
County, Maryland, just across the Potomac River from King George County,
Virginia
In March 1733, Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. was still rector of Westminster Parish in Ann Arundel
County, Maryland. He was one of thirteen
Parish rectors that petitioned the Province of Maryland on 30 March 1733. At this Maryland Court meeting, the clergymen
requested that payment for their services be made in paper currency, like other
public officers. Jacob Henderson led the
petition as the commissary for the Bishop of London.
Later in 1733, Esdras
Theodore Edzard Sr. appears to have removed to William and Mary Parish, Charles
County (1734 & 1735 Charles County probate). He must have become the rector there but only
for a short time (1734 and 1735 Charles County probate). Note: William and Mary Parish appears to
have been without a rector during some part of 1733 and Edzard likely filled
that spot. Esdras Theodore
Edzard Sr. appeared to have died in late 1733 or early 1734. His estate was first mentioned in Charles
County records as early as 1 February 1734.
A subsequent record was dated 5 December 1734 (some family histories
list his death date as 5 December 1734 but this is not correct). This record identified Esdras Theodore Edzard
Sr.’s appraisers as Charles Yeats and Edward Ford, creditors as Barton Waring
and William Warder, and administrator as John Philpott of Charles County (this
could have been the inventory). There
appears to have been no actual will and so the estate was intestate. However, in the estate record, administrator
John Philpott identified “no kin in Maryland.”
Note: other probate records simply list “no kin” and therefore the
statement “no kin in Maryland” certainly means that he had kin elsewhere – in
this case England. Note: In July 1752,
the Charles Musgrave estate of Charles County paid Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. “representatives”
on a debt owed.
On 13 January 1735, the
estate sale was conducted with sureties Charles Musgrove and Charles Philpott,
and also John Philpott as administrator, all representing the interests of
Edzard. The estate paid many individuals
and received payments on debts from William Cumming and the vestry of William
and Mary Parish (which may support the hypothesis that Edzard had become the
William and Mary Parish rector). William
and Mary Parish would have owed Edzard for his services to the parish as
rector. On 12 July 1736, the Edzard
estate made additional payments to individuals and received payment from
Nicholas Maccubbin.
Clergymen in the colonies
often left detailed instructions for the administration of their items in the
event of their death. This was true
mainly for bachelors and men who family who had remained in England. For example, Reverend Samuel Edgar, who was
rector of Westminster Parish prior to Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. and later of
St. Anne’s Parish, died in 1745. He left
instructions that he wanted no funeral sermon at his burial, his affairs
settled by a parishioner, his clothes left to the family he lived with, a sale
of his belongings, and the money from that sale sent to his family in London.
Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. obviously
did not have a family living in Maryland.
His family was not there as they were still
in Norfolk, England where two of his children had been baptized (Esdras
Theodore Edzard Jr. and George Eleazer Edzard).
His other known son James Edzard must have been born between 1718 and
1734 (no record of birth or baptism, probably closer to 1718 to 1724). After Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. died in
1734, his widow Elisabeth/Elizabetha may have married Thomas Scarlett, a
widower. She was listed as a widow in
their marriage record. Both were living
in East Harling, Norfolk County, England and they married at St. Peter and St.
Paul Church in East Harling. After this
marriage, Elizabeth’s activities were unknown.
Her hsuband Thomas Scarlett may have died in Norfolk County in 1742 (a
Thomas Scarlett was buried 3 May 1742 at East Dereham, St. Nicholas Parish,
Norfolk County). She was still alive in
1762 (and appeared to be in America living in Virginia) but was known then as
Isabel (a variant of Elizabeth) Odle (or Odell). Her second husband must have died and she
married an unknown Odle/Odell in either England or America. Her arrival date in America is unknown.
Norfolkshire and London,
England. East Larling (marriage of widow
Elizabeth Edzard), South Pickenham (burial of George Eleazer Edzard), and
Houghton on the Hill (actually North Pickenham; baptism of Esdras Theodore
Edzard Sr.)
Two Esdras Theodore Edzard
Sr. children are known from baptismal records.
Others are known from one of those son’s (Esdras Theodore Edzard Jr.)
1762 will. This will identifies the
following additional siblings of Esdras Theodore Edzard Jr.: James Edzard (who
he shared at least a father with), Rebecca (who was married to a Platt in
1762), and Mary (whose last name was Odle/Odell in 1762). The sisters of Esdras Theodore Edzard Jr. could
have been half-sisters that were born after his mother Elizabeth/Isabel
remarried (either/or Scarlett or Odle/Odell).
So the known children of Esdras Theodore Edzard Sr. were:
·
Esdras Theodore Edzard Jr., born circa
1716-1717
·
Georgius Eleazer Edzard, born circa
1717-1718
·
James Edzard, born circa 1720-1734
And other possible children were (these are considered
full or half siblings of Esdras Jr.):
·
Rebecca
·
Mary
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