Classically educated at Yale, he participated in the victorious Louisbourg, Nova Scotia expedition during the third French and Indian War.
[citation needed] As a young adult, Adonijah Bidwell attended Yale College and graduated in 1740.
[3] He was intermittently a teacher, a chaplain for the British and colonial expeditions to Canada and, finally, a full-time minister for Township No.
[3] In 1745 he was the chaplain on the William Pepperrell expedition to Louisbourg during King George's War and served on the ship, Defense in 1747.
[3] In 1752, Adonijah Bidwell married Theodosia Colton of Suffield, Connecticut, a poet[2][7] and the daughter of his former tutor.
Adonijah the Younger inherited the family farm, while Barnabas Bidwell became a member of the United States House of Representatives.
One year later, Reverend Bidwell married Ruth Kent of Suffield, Connecticut to take care of his four children.
The meetinghouse, badly constructed and only half finished when Adonijah arrived, was a poor place to hold service and town meetings.
As the church slowly decayed, it is likely that Adonijah Bidwell would have held sermons in his own house, utilizing the 48 chairs listed in his death inventory.
His large home may have accommodated travellers passing through Tyringham on the Boston–Albany Post Road which was located near the Meeting House.
He sold beef to the troops, gave up his salary for four years so they could be paid, and loaned the town an additional £60 to pay the soldiers.