Sereno Edwards Dwight

Sereno Edwards Dwight (May 18, 1786 - November 30, 1850) was an American author, educator, and Congregationalist minister.

Dwight was the fifth son of Yale College President Timothy Dwight IV, born in Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Connecticut. He graduated Yale in 1803, was a tutor there in 1806-1810, and successfully practised law in New Haven, Connecticut in 1810-1816. Licensed to preach in 1816, he was the chaplain of the United States Senate for one year, was pastor of the Park Street Church, Boston, in 1817-1826, and in 1833-1835 was president of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. His career was wrecked by accidental mercury poisoning, which interfered with his work in Boston and at Hamilton College, and made his life after 1839 solitary and comparatively uninfluential. His publications include "Life of David Brainerd" (1822); "Life and Works of Jonathan Edwards" (ten volumes, 1830), of whom he was a descendant; "The Hebrew Wife" (1836), an argument against marriage with a deceased wife's sister; and "Select Discourses" (1851); to which was prefixed a biographical sketch by his brother William Dwight (1795-1865), who was also successively a lawyer and a Congregational preacher.

Publications

* William Theodore Dwight, "Select Discourses"' (1851)