12
In Wales, the episcopally-ordained Griffith Jones was preaching as an itinerant evangelist, across
parish boundaries, by 1710. Great crowds were being powerfully affected by his preaching by 1713.
Historian of the period, Skevington Wood, states the matter bluntly; "he proclaimed the new birth and
saw its gracious fruits long before the onset of the Awakening proper."
45
The three great leaders of the
Awakening in Wales which followed, Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris, and Pryce Davies all looked to
Griffiths Jones as a father-figure. It was as a veteran of these labors that he advised the young George
Whitefield at Bath in 1739.
46
In the American colonies, there had been a decay of vital Christianity observed as the 17
th
century gave way to the 18
th
. Yet Jonathan Edwards' grandfather, the minister Solomon Stoddart, was
instrumental in five periods of spiritual awakening at Northampton, Massachusetts in the years 1679,
1683, 1696, 1712, and 1718.
47
Similar awakenings were documented at Taunton, Massachusetts in 1705
and in New Jersey by 1726 this latter in connection with the notable ministry of Theodore
Freylinghausen.
48
Other awakenings were noted in Windham, Connecticut in 1721 and Freehold, New
Jersey in 1730-32 both prior to the notable awakening with which Jonathan Edwards would be
connected at Northampton in 1734 and 1735. As Wood has significantly noted, "chronologically
speaking, it was the
precursor of the Evangelical Awakening in our land (i.e. the United Kingdom)."
49
It was the communication of these American tidings which raised expectancy in England that such
visitations might appear there.
50
As for Scotland, we must take note of the assertion of historian John MacInnes, that a "militant
Presbyterian evangelicalism" was a force for an extending of the Gospel into the Highlands from 1688
onward the year of the Revolution which swept away Stuart rule.
51
Awakenings were noted as early as
1724 in Easter Ross. The parish of Nigg witnessed an awakening which commenced in 1730 and
45
A. Skevington Wood, The Inextinguishable Blaze:Spiritual Renewal and Advance in the Eighteenth Century,
(London, Paternoster, 1960). p. 45.
46
Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield, (Edinburgh, Banner, 1970). Vol. 1, p. 261.
47
In drawing attention to the continuity between Stoddart and his grandson, Edwards, Mark Noll has chosen to
speak of the latter as the "heir in spirit" to the former. Mark Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and
Canada, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1992) p. 87.
48
Wood, Inextinguishable Blaze pp. 56,7
49
ibid. p. 59
50
Edwards' Narrative of Surprising Conversions was printed at London in 1737.
51
John MacInnes, The Evangelical Movement in the Highlands of Scotland 1688-1800. (Aberdeen, The University
Press, 1951) chapter 2.