Rev. Morgan Edwards, A.M., a Welsh Baptist, became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia in 1761, upon the recommendation of the celebrated John Gill, D. D., of London. He resigned this pastorate in 1771, and removed to Pencader Hundred, near Newark, Del., where he lived until his death, January 28, 1795. He was the founder of Brown University, in Rhode Island, and was a deeply learned scholar. He was the pioneer Baptist historian in this country, and traveled extensively in collecting what he called his "Materials toward a history of the Baptist Churches in all the colonies." It was to have been completed in twelve volumes. The first volume was issued in 1770, and treated of the churches in Pennsylvania. The next volume, which was upon the New Jersey Baptists, was issued in 1792. His history of the Rhode Island Baptists was published in 1867, by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Volume III., which contains the history of the early Baptists in Delaware, was published in 1885, by the Pennsylvania Historical Society in its Magazine, and ran through two numbers, with an introduction by Hon. H. J. Jones. This volume is also published separately.

      The most of Morgan Edwards' historical writing was doubtless performed during his twenty-four years' residence in Delaware. The original sheets of his "History of the Delaware Baptists," in possession of the American Baptist Historical Society, 1420 Chestnut Street, Phila., is like all his manuscript, a model of exactness and beauty.

[From John T. Scharf, History of Deleware, 1609-1888, p. 465. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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