Levi Hedge was born in Warwick, Massachusetts on April 19, 1766. He attended Harvard College, receiving an A.B. in 1792 and an A.M. in 1795. He also received an Honorary A.M. from Brown University in 1808 and an LL.D. from Yale in 1823. He was married to Mary Kneeland. Hedge taught at Harvard College for thirty-seven years, as tutor from 1795 to 1810, as College Professor of Logic and Metaphysics from 1810 to 1827, and as Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity from 1827 to 1832. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Levi Hedge died in Warwick on January 3, 1844.
William Jenks was born in Newton, Massachusetts on November 25, 1778. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1797, an A.M. in 1800 and an S.T.D. in 1842. He also received two degrees from Bowdoin College: an S.T.D. in 1825 and an L.L.D. in 1862. Jenks served as pastor of churches in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Bath, Maine before joining the faculty of Bowdoin College as professor of Oriental and English literature. He later returned to Boston, where he founded a mission for seamen and took an active part in several of the city's humanitarian reform organizations. He served as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College from 1832 to 1845. He was also a founder of the American Antiquarian Society and the American Oriental Society. William Jenks died in Boston on November 13, 1866.
From the description of Letter from Levi Hedge to William Jenks, June 1, 1807. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 631112276
