Timothy Dwight, only surviving son of Colonel Timothy Dwight, of Northampton, Massachusetts, and grandson of Nathaniel and Mehitabel (Partridge) Dwight, of Northampton, was born at Fort Dummer, in what is now Brattleboro, Vermont, May 27, 1726. His mother was Experience, daughter of Lieutenant John and Mehitabel (Pomeroy) King, of Northampton, and at the time of his birth she was with her husband, the commander of the fort lately built by order of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay under his direction for the purpose of checking savage invasion.
He became a merchant in Northampton, and in September, 1748, was appointed Register of Probate for Hampshire County, succeeding in that office his father, who was then advanced to the position of Judge of the Court. The son continued as Register for twenty years, having also in the meantime succeeded his father, in January, 1758, on his resignation of the Judgeship of the County Court of Common Pleas. The latter position the son retained until the end of the Provincial Government of Massachusetts. He also held other local offices of trust, being a selectman of the town from 1769 to 1774, town recorder from 1760 to 1775, and several years a representative in the General Court. He was also a Major in the Militia.
As the Revolution approached, he was unwilling to transgress the oath of fealty to the British Government which he had taken on assuming office as Judge. He undertook therefore to solve his political doubts, and at the same time to gratify his love of adventure, by investing largely in the enterprise of a colony on the Mississippi, in which his only sister's husband, General Phineas Lyman (Y. C. 1738), had been so deeply interested (v. p. 606).
In the spring of 1776, he set out for Natchez, accompanied by two sons and by his sister and her children. After a very arduous journey and a wearing experience there, his previously good health gave way, and he died in the wilderness, near Natchez, June 10, 1777, at the age of 51.
His estate in Northampton amounted to L4567 ; from the Mississippi grant nothing was recovered.
Major Dwight married Mary, fourth daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards (Y. C. 1720), on the 8th of November, 1750, just as her father was leaving Northampton for Stockbridge. She died in Northampton, February 28, 1807, in her 73d year. Their children were nine sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to maturity. The eldest child was President Dwight (Y. C. 1769), and the youngest daughter was the mother of President Woolsey.
Major Dwight was of fine physical proportions, and possessed of great muscular strength. He was remarkable for his strict conscientiousness.
AUTHORITIES.
Clark, Antiquities of Northampton, 296.
Dwight Genealogy, i, 120, 130-40.
