Joseph Hawley III (October 8, 1723 – March 10, 1788) was a political leader from Massachusetts during the era of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

. Joseph Hawley III was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, a son of Joseph Hawley II (28 August 1682 - 1 June 1735) and Rebekah Stoddard (d. 1766), the daughter of Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729). Stoddard, a minister who held the pulpit of Northampton's First Congregational Church for sixty years, was succeeded in his pulpit by his grandson, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). Thus, Joseph Hawley III was a first cousin to Jonathan Edwards. Through his sermons and ministry, Edwards led his congregation in an early manifestation of the

First Great Awakening The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affecte ...

in 1734-1735. Joseph's father Joseph Hawley II, in deep distress over the perceived depth of his own sinfulness, committed suicide in 1735 when Joseph III was eleven years old, which Edwards publicly attributed to the work of Satan and the Hawley family’s history of mental illness, described as "melancholy". Joseph Hawley III graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1742 (he studied theology), and served as a Captain in a Massachusetts regiment during the 1745 Louisbourg expedition. He studied law under Phineas Lyman, and began practicing in 1749. He served in a variety of public offices, and was first elected to the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

in 1751. Hawley was active in getting Jonathan Edwards dismissed from his position as pastor of the Northampton church. During the Stamp Act crisis he emerged, with

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...

and James Otis, Jr., as a leader of the popular (or Whig) party. He declined election to the First Continental Congress in 1774, but was an active leader of the

Massachusetts Provincial Congress The Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1774–1780) was a provisional government created in the Province of Massachusetts Bay early in the American Revolution. Based on the terms of the colonial charter, it exercised ''de facto'' control over the ...

. He urged Massachusetts's delegates to the Second Continental Congress to issue the

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ( ...

. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1776 and never again served in the legislature, but he continued to write important political essays. He was charter member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1780. Joseph Hawley is the namesake of the town of

Hawley, Massachusetts Hawley is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 353 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Hawley was first settled in 1760 as Plantation Nu ...

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References

*Stephen E. Patterson. "Hawley, Joseph". '' American National Biography Online'', February 2000. 1723 births 1788 deaths People of colonial Massachusetts Massachusetts lawyers Members of the colonial Massachusetts House of Representatives Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Politicians from Northampton, Massachusetts Yale College alumni 18th-century American politicians {{Massachusetts-stub