This Week in Christian History: Jonathan Edwards Elected President of Princeton, National Cathedral Construction

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, September 23, 2018

Jonathan Edwards Elected President of Princeton - September 29, 1757

This week marks the anniversary of when famed Protestant preacher Jonathan Edwards was elected the third president of the College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton University.

Princeton's trustees elected Edwards five days after the death of his son-in-law, Aaron Burr, Sr., who had served as the second president of the academic institution.

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While Edwards was a supporter of Princeton, he was initially hesitant to accept the position, explaining in a letter dated Oct. 19, 1757 that he felt "my own defects" disqualified him from "such a new and great business, attended with such a multiplicity of cares, and requiring such a degree of activity, alertness and spirit of government ...."

Nevertheless, Edwards eventually accepted the position and was officially installed as president the following year, but served a brief term before dying from a fever on March 22, 1758.