Samuel Whiting Jr.

The Reverend Samuel Whiting Jr. (1633-1713) was the first minister of Billerica, Massachusetts,

Family and early life

The Rev Samuel Whiting Jr. was the son of the Reverend Samuel Whiting Snr. (1597-1679) and his second wife, Elizabeth St. John. Elizabeth belonged to the prominent landowning family of St. John of Lydiard Tregoze; she was the sister 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.

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 1639 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.

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.

The Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr. travelled from King's Lynn England to Boston, arriving there on May 26, 1636 where his presence was heralded by the colony's governor, John Winthrop. Whiting Snr. lived in Boston - the colony's "hub" - for one month before moving to Lynn, Massachusetts where, according to folklore, the residents changed the name of their settlement in his honour. Whiting's assistants were his neighbour Rev. Thomas Cobbett 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". Lincolnshire man Skepper also assisted Cobbett at the church in Lynn, Massachusetts.

The Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr. was a colleague of the Rev. John Cotten who was the pastor at the First Church in Boston from 1633 until 1652.

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. While some sources indicate he had a brother, Nathaniel, this is in error. In his father's memoir it is clear he had no son named Nathaniel.

References

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)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiting, Samuel
People from Billerica, Massachusetts
1633 births
1713 deaths
Harvard University alumni