A Boston Family's Bible Comes Home, 318 Years Later

A Boston man named Benjamin Edwards carefully carried a very old Bible through city streets in January and donated it to a history society on Newbury Street. The Bible was printed in 1708 — more than 300 years ago — and once belonged to his sixth great-grandfather, a sea captain who also lived in Boston. Edwards, who is 64 years old and works as a history tour guide, wanted the rare book to be kept safe so that everyone could learn from it. After traveling to Wyoming and then Connecticut over the centuries, the Bible has finally returned to Boston.

The Bible now belongs to American Ancestors, a group that was founded in 1845 to help people learn about their family histories. It is the oldest family Bible from Boston in the group's entire collection. A conservator named Todd Pattison spent dozens of hours carefully cleaning and repairing it. He called it 'really top-of-the-line' and said it was amazing that the Bible had stayed in the same family for so long.

The Bible is large and heavy — 16 inches long, 10.5 inches wide, and 3.5 inches thick. It was made by hand on special paper and covered with calf leather to protect it. People will be able to view it by appointment in a controlled setting. The book even includes maps of the Holy Land and the Atlantic Ocean as they were known back in the early 1700s.

The original owner, Captain Benjamin Edwards, lived a bold and dangerous life. He sailed trade routes between New England and the Caribbean, carrying goods like boards, fish, and shingles. In 1722, pirates attacked his ship, the Greyhound, in the Bay of Honduras. After an hour of fighting, Edwards was forced to give up his six-gun ship, and the pirates tied him to their mast and treated the crew very cruelly.

No one knows exactly how Captain Edwards made it back home to Boston's North End. But after his return, he went on to serve the city in several ways, including as a tax collector. He died in 1751 at age 66 and is buried at Copp's Hill Burying Ground, which still exists in Boston today. His descendant said, 'Try to imagine the courage it took to get on a relatively small sailing ship.'

Captain Edwards' family went on to play important roles in American history. His oldest son served in the French and Indian War. His third son, Alexander, was a member of the Sons of Liberty, a group that pushed back against British rule. And his granddaughter Sally married Paul Revere Jr., the son of the famous patriot Paul Revere.

The Bible contains handwritten family records of births, marriages, and deaths going back to 1706. The first entry records Captain Edwards' marriage to Hannah Harrod, performed by the Reverend Cotton Mather, a well-known minister of the time. One of the last entries notes the death of Mary Edwards Parkhurst in 1870 — listed down to the exact day. Pattison said those pages show the most wear, proving how much the family treasured them.

The Bible left Boston more than a century ago when a family member moved to Wyoming for health reasons. About 15 years ago, that person's granddaughter, Jeannie Edwards Cook, wanted it returned to New England and shipped it to Benjamin Edwards' parents in Connecticut. Edwards picked it up during a family visit last Christmas and decided to donate it, along with $10,000 to help pay for its digitization and restoration.

Pattison worked through the Bible page by page in his conservation lab. He removed dust, mended torn paper, wrote notes about its condition, and photographed every step. He even found pressed plant leaves tucked between some pages and wondered what they meant — maybe a bookmark, maybe a memory. His goal is to preserve the Bible for 'several hundred years more.'

For Benjamin Edwards, studying his family's history became a deep passion. He sees the Bible as much more than a family keepsake — it connects his ancestors to some of the biggest moments in American history. 'Objects like this are not only a part of Boston's story,' he said, 'they are a part of the greater American story.' He added that he feels relief, not sadness, about donating it: 'Families are temporary custodians. I don't feel a sense of loss. I feel a sense of relief.'