Despite high visibility during his lifetime, Stiles actually had little of consequence published, and his influence was circumscribed. A History of Three of the Judges of King Charles I (1794), written late in life, portrays a mind that was more learned than profound, and among his seven published sermons are only two that can be considered truly memorable. Yet even when these limits to his historical stature are acknowledged, there can be no gainsaying the fact that Ezra Stiles was one of the more interesting members of his generation of New Englanders--as can be amply ascertained from the fine biography of him written by Yale historian Edmund S. Morgan.
Born on 29 November 1727 in North Haven, Connecticut, to the Reverend Isaac Stiles and his first wife, Reverend Edward Taylor's daughter Kezia, who died a few days after her son's birth, Ezra was nursed initially by a loving neighbor; was nurtured later by a vigorous but pliant stepmother; and was influenced finally by his less robust but still domineering father.
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