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Note: THE CONNECTICUT QUARTERLY: "A remarkable feature in our family history, as it would be in any other, is the branch of Elizabeth. It is an interesting genealogical study. Both the parents were of the same Welsh race. There is evidence that the mother had the sensitive and excitable temperament of genius. Richard Edwards, being an only child, inherited ample means and gave his children the best education the country afforded. To educate is to bring out, and to train, it cannot create talents or character. The ministerial profession was then almost the only field for the employment of able and educated men. So all things conspired to favor the natural bent for their son Timothy. The process was continued and in the next generation reached its highest development in his son Jonathan. From the very beginning this branch has been noted for its high regard for education, its scholarly culture, and its religious disposition. It is said to include a larger number of eminent persons than have sprung from any other one of the New England founders. It is wonderful, says a late writer, how much of the grace and culture of American society has sprung from this root. The same pursuits continued generation after generation in the same families, or originally set apart by nature for a chosen work, has resulted in a heritage of confirmed aptitudes, enlarged natural capacities, delicacy and refinement of physical organization, manners, sentiments and tastes; a sort of 'Brahmin Caste in New England,' as Dr. Holmes put it, of which the Edwards family form a considerable proportion, and in which it holds a high rank."
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