Samuel Whiting Jr.
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The Reverend Samuel Whiting Jr. (1633-1713) was the first minister of Billerica, Massachusetts,[1]
Family and early life
The Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr.
The Rev Samuel Whiting Jr. was the son of the Reverend Samuel Whiting Snr. (1597-1679) and his second wife,[3] Elizabeth St. John (1604-1677).[4] Elizabeth belonged to the prominent landowning family of St. John of Lydiard Tregoze; she was the sister[4] of Sir Oliver St. John, a leading lawyer and judge who was one of the foremost opponents of King Charles I of England during the English Civil War.[5]
The Rev. Samuel Whiting (Samuel Whiting Snr.) was from Boston, Lincolnshire in England, himself the son of John Whiting, Mayor of Boston. The will of Mayor Whiting, father of Samuel Snr., recorded in the parish register of St. Botolph's Church, Boston, Lincolnshire in England, is dated 20 Oct 1617. The parents of the Rev. William Skepper (1597-c.1650) - who would study at Cambridge University with Whiting Snr. and sail in 1638 to join the Massachusetts Bay Colony before moving to nearby Lynn - were married in England in the Whiting family church, St Botolph's, on 11 August 1592.[6][7]
Soon after receiving his A.B & A.M. degrees from the Puritan-focused Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1618 and 1620), Whiting Snr. received holy orders. Whiting Snr. was married at Boston, on 6 August 1629 to his second wife, Elizabeth, sister of Rt. Hon. Sir Oliver St. John whose wife Elizabeth Cromwell was a first cousin of Oliver Cromwell. St John was later chief justice of England and one of the leaders of the Parliamentary opposition to King Charles I of England.[8]
The Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr. travelled from King's Lynn England to Boston, arriving there on May 26, 1636 where his presence was noted by the colony's governor, John Winthrop.[9] Whiting Snr. lived in Boston - the colony's "hub"[10] - for six months[11] before moving to Lynn, Massachusetts where the residents soon changed the name of their settlement in his honour. Whiting's assistants were his neighbour Rev. Thomas Cobbett[12] and the Rev. William Skepper (1597-c.1650) who had been his contemporary at Cambridge University; Skepper studying at Sidney Sussex, the university's other Puritan college. As with Whiting, both Cobbett and Skepper had Lincolnshire connections - Cobbett had "first settled in the ministry at a small place in Lincolnshire".[13] Lincolnshire man Skepper also assisted Cobbett at the church in Lynn, Massachusetts.[14][15][16][7]
Relationship with Oliver Cromwell
The Rev Samuel Whiting Snr. came over to Boston Massachusetts on the same ship as his Cambridge contemporary John Wheelwright who, like Whiting Snr. was also a Puritan minister. Wheelwright was banished form the Massachusetts General Court on 3 November 1637. Wheelwright knew Whiting Snr. from Cambridge as well as the Rev William Skipper and Oliver Cromwell both of whom he had been in residence with at Cambridge's Sidney Sussex College. Wheelwright returned to England where, by the 1650s, he was received by Oliver Cromwell, by this time known as His Highness Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. Whiting Snr. and Cromwell were distantly related: Whiting's second wife, Elizabeth, was the sister of Sir Oliver St. John whose second wife, Elizabeth Cromwell, was the first cousin of Cromwell.[17]Template:Sfn[18]
In 1650, Cromwell wrote to Whiting Snr. and his Lynn friend, the Rev. Thomas Cobbett, asking them to go to Ireland to encourage the Protestants to embrace Puritanism . Whiting Snr. wrote back to Cromwell in January 1651, humbly thanking him for his "offers" and "promising to embrace the same". However, nothing came of their plans.[19]
Personality, interests and appearance
Once settled in Lynn, the Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr. established his home with his wife and two children across from the settlement's meetinghouse. Their garden was said to be known by the community for its variety of fruit and vegetables, and for the apple cider produced by its trees. He also was given 200 acres of land in 1638. He was said to be greatly respected by his community, and was “peculiarly amiable.” When among groups of people, he would “kiss all the maids” and “he felt all the better for it.” They were said to “hug their arms around his neck and kiss him right back.” Samuel was described as being “a man of middle size and straight fine hair". He attempted to communicate with - and likely convert - the Native Americans. In the 1640s, he took an Indian girl into his household given over by her mother. He gave her an education and she became a part of his family, but eight years later, she ran away back to her tribe. Whiting Snr. was said to be heartbroken when she left. He was a colleague of the Rev. John Cotten who was the pastor at the First Church in Boston from 1633 until 1652.[20][21]
Samuel Whiting Jr.
The Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr.'s son, Samuel Whiting Jr. graduated from Harvard in 1653. His father Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr. had written the Oratio Quam Comitijs Cantabrigiensibus Americanis Peroravit reverendissimus D.D. Samuel Whiting Pastor Linnensis; in aula sci-licet Harvardina in 1649 which had furthered the growing success of Harvard University.[22][3] While some sources indicate he had a brother, Nathaniel,[23] this is in error. In his father's memoir[24] it is clear he had no son named Nathaniel.
References
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Further reading
- “Elegy on the Rev. Samuel Whiting,[ Sr.,] of Lynn,” by Benjamin Tompson, “ye renowned poet of New England,” printed in Cotton Mather's Magnalia
- William Whiting, LL. D., Memoirs of Rev. Samuel Whiting and of his Wife, Elizabeth St. John, with Reference to some of their English Ancestors and American Descendants (printed privately, Boston, 1871)
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