The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards

North American Religions Series

by Ava Chamberlain

Who was Elizabeth Tuttle?

In most histories, she is a footnote, a blip. At best, she is a minor villain in the story of Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest American theologian of the colonial era. Many historians consider Jonathan Edwards a theological genius, wildly ahead of his time, a Puritan hero. Elizabeth Tuttle was Edwards’s “crazy grandmother,” the one whose madness and adultery drove his despairing grandfather to divorce.

In this compelling and meticulously researched work of micro-history, Ava Chamberlain unearths a fuller history of Elizabeth Tuttle. It is a violent and tragic story in which anxious patriarchs struggle to govern their households, unruly women disobey their husbands, mental illness tears families apart, and loved ones die sudden deaths. Through the lens of Elizabeth Tuttle, Chamberlain re-examines the common narrative of Jonathan Edwards’s ancestry, giving his long-ignored paternal grandmother a voice. Tracing this story into the 19th century, she creates a new way of looking at both ordinary families of colonial New England and how Jonathan Edwards’s family has been remembered by his descendants, contemporary historians, and, significantly, eugenicists. For as Chamberlain uncovers, it was during the eugenics movement, which employed the Edwards family as an ideal, that the crazy grandmother story took shape.

The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle not only brings to light the tragic story of an ordinary woman living in early New England, it also explores the deeper tension between the ideal of Puritan family life and its messy reality, complicating the way America has thought about its Puritan past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Religion, True Crime, Microhistory

251 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Lucie]

Most of the reviewers of this book have concentrated on the story line, or on the gender roles, or on Puritan daily life. All of these were very interesting and well represented in this book. But I found something more. I grew up in western Massachusetts and graduated from high school in Hartford, from a school founded in 1635, during the time of this microhistory. Rural New England, when I was growing up, reflected the same ideals of manhood and masculinity that Chamberlain outlines as Puritan standards. The gender roles outlined in this book and the idea of New England superiority were still holding sway even in non-elite circles. Now I understand more fully where these ideas came from, I find it easier to understand the attitudes I encountered as a teenager in New England. I would encourage anyone with New England family background to read this for a fuller understanding of where we come from. I also highly recommend this well done history to anyone who is interested in early colonial life, or history in general. I don't usually read nonfiction, but this was as compelling as any fiction I have read!

[Margo Brooks]

This was quite an interesting look at an historical figure about which little is known. Elizabeth Tuttle, a 17th century Puritan Goodwife has alternately been written out of the story of her famous grandson, Jonathon Edwards, and held up as the paragon of womanly virtue that begat numerous famous Americans. Claimed by both sides of the eugenics debate in the early 20th century as proof for or against eugenics, Elizabeth Tuttle was just an ordinary woman to whom bad things happened.

Chamberlain paints a wonderful picture of Puritan Connecticut and the first and second generation colonists. I learned more than I anticipated about the reasons for immigration, the early social networks of the colonists, and the early legal system. But because Elizabeth has no voice of her own in the historical record, some of what Chamberlain argued was somewhat ambiguous. For the most part, however, the picture she paints of a troubled woman hurt by violent deaths in her family and without the support of her husband rings true. What is most amazing is how much people of the past are like people today--ruled by passion, ambition, and love. Frustrated by denial and failure and just trying to get by the best they can.

[James]

I think this is a great book that manages to keep things interesting without straying from the historical record. Being a descendant of the Tuttle family myself, and knowing quite a bit about the subject matter beforehand, I was nevertheless impressed on how in depth this went, to the point that I had to reread it in order to absorb everything. While some might see this as a detriment, I think it shows how well researched this book is, especially considering the scarcity of records. From start to finish, this book remains constantly engaging, while never exaggerating the truth whatsoever.

[Carolyn Tuttle]

This book is written through a historical lens of secondary resources, and educated speculation. I enjoyed reading it, as Chamberlain's writing is similar to my own historical writing style. However, the text is dry and repetitive, making this a long and somewhat boring read. My next step is to ascertain whether or not I am a descendant of Elizabeth Tuttle. How exciting!

[Caitlin Taylor]

This wasn’t my cup of tea. I only read this for school tbh. It was interesting though in its methods to studying one particular woman, but even then, she isn’t the central character. She is merely a person used to study her family, she herself doesn’t have much known about her.

[Bonnie]

The story of Jonathan Edwards' grandparents' marriage is an interesting one because it demonstrates that mental illness, domestic violence, and unhappy marriages are nothing new. The author does well at constructing a narrative when there is a severe dearth of material from Elizabeth's perspective -- no diaries or letters at all. But the writing is sometimes clunky and often repetitive. One might almost think it was a PhD thesis. The author is in a department of religion, not history, but might have a PhD in history. She certainly knows her way around primary materials. It would have been a better book with a good editor.

[Jenny]

This book about Elizabeth Tuttle, the Theologian Jonathan Edwards' controversial grandmother, examines how colonial women are presented in the historical record. Through careful examination of the existing information about the Tuttle and Edwards families, the author pieces together a short biography of Elizabeth Tuttle that differs in significant ways from the existing versions of her story which include the deceased wife, the sexually promiscuous and crazy grandmother, and then source of the spark of genius found in many of her descendants.

[Mlg]

Women, in Puritan times were to be obedient to their husbands or they would be considered insane. I'd have been in big trouble as a Puritan. Jonathan Edward's grandmother was a woman who also didn't follow the rules. Her family story is actually way more interesting than Edwards'. Two axe murders, adultery, a refusal of paternity, divorce, madness etc. this family had it all. What made this book so interesting was the context for everyday Puritan life. The author got a bit repetitious, but I found the book very interesting.

[R.J. Gilmour]

Last night I picked up Ava Chamberlain's The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the family of Jonathan Edwards (New York: New York University Press, 2012). Like much of my own work, Chamberlain's study of Tuttle is studying that which is missing. This microhistory following in the tradition of work by Natalie Zemon Davis seeks to recover the life of a woman who left no historical records of herself. She appears in documentary sources briefly as Edwards grandmother but Chamberlains wants to retrieve her story and her life. It is a fascinating work of recovery.

[Deedee]

FAY-PT 285.809 CHAMBERLAIN

[Autumn]

This is a great work of history. Wonderfully written, a deep dig into the archives, upfront about its limitations, and just plain interesting.