(August 27, 1793 – May 27, 1840) was one of the earliest converts to the Latter Day Saint movement and served as its first Bishop of the Church.
Edward Partridge was the grandson of Massachusetts Congressman Oliver Partridge, Esq., and a member of a family noted for commercial, social, political, and military leadership in Western Massachusetts.
Partridge owned a hat-making factory and retail store in Painesville, Ohio. He was sent to New York in 1830 by a group of Painesville citizens to investigate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was baptized a member of the Church of Christ, later renamed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in or near Seneca Lake, New York, on December 11, 1830, and upon his return to Painesville discovered that his wife had also become a convert.
Two months later in Kirtland, Ohio, Partridge became the first to hold the prominent position of bishop. In this position he helped lead the Mormon settlement in Jackson County, Missouri, and managed land distribution under the law of consecration. He was tarred and feathered by an anti-Mormon mob in July 1833, then forced to move to Clay County, Missouri, followed by Caldwell County in 1836. During 1835, he served a mission in Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana, then entered into another mission in New York and New England. Following the 1838 Mormon War, Partridge was jailed in Richmond, Missouri; in 1839, he was expelled from the state.