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- Samuel Whiting
WHITING, Samuel, clergyman, born in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, 20 November, 1597; died in Lynn, Massachusetts, 11 December, 1679. His father, John, was mayor of his native city. The son was graduated at Cambridge in 1616, entered the ministry, and officiated at Lynn, in Norfolk, and in Skirbeck, near his native place, but, after two prosecutions for nonconformity, he emigrated to this country, where he was the first minister of Lynn, Massachusetts, serving from 8 November, 1636, till his death. He was a close student and an accomplished Hebrew and Latin scholar. " In his preaching," says Cotton Mather, "his design was not to please but to profit ; to bring forth, not high things, but fit things." He published "Oratio quam Comitiis Cantab. Americanis" (1649) ; "Treatise on the Last Judgment" (1664) ; and a volume of sermons on " Abraham Interceding for Sodom" (1666). His second wife was the daughter of Oliver St. John, chief justice of England under Cromwell, and their son, SAMUEL (1633--1713), was graduated at Harvard in 1653 and became the first minister of Billerica, Massachusetts An " Elegy on the Reverend Samuel Whiting, of Lynn," by Benjamin Tompson, "ye renowned poet of New England," is printed in Cotton Mather's "Magnalia." See also " Memoirs of Reverend Samuel Whiting and of his Wife, Elizabeth St. John, with Reference to some of their English Ancestors and American Descendants," by William Whiting, LL. D. (printed privately, Boston, 1871).--His descendant William, lawyer, born in Concord, Massachusetts, 3 March, 1813; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 29 June, 1873, was graduated at Harvard in 1833, and, after teaching at Plymouth and Concord, studied law in Boston and at Harvard law-school, where he was graduated in 1838. He then began practice in Boston, where he soon attained eminence at the bar, and was engaged in many important cases. In 1862 he became solicitor of the war department in Washington, where he served three years. In 1868 he was a presidential elector, and in 1872 he was elected to congress as a Republican, but he died before he could take his seat. Colby university gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1872. He left $5,000 to Harvard for a scholarship. Mr. Whiting was for five years president of the New England historic-genealogical society. His principal work is " The War Powers of the President and the Legislative Powers of Congress in Relation to Rebellion, Treason, and Slavery" (Boston, 1862; 10th ed., with large additions, 1863: 43d ed., 1871). In this he formulated views that he had urged at the opening of the civil war, namely, that the United States government had full belligerent rights against the inhabitants of seceded states, and without going beyond the constitution could confiscate their property, emancipate their slaves, and treat them as public enemies. These opinions were at first received with caution by most public men, but they were finally sanctioned and adopted by the government. The book had a large sale in this country and abroad. Besides this, he published various pamphlets, chiefly legal arguments before the United States courts, and a "Memoir of Reverend Joseph Harrington," prefixed to a volume of his sermons (Boston, 1854), and was the author of the privately printed memoir of his ancestor, Samuel, mentioned above.
Memoir of Rev Samuel Whiting, D.D. and of His Wife Elizabeth St. John; with reference to some of their English Ancestors and American Descendants by William Whiting FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE New-ENgIand HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY,AUTHOR OF "WAR POWERS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC. 1873
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" The family of Whiting," says Thompson (pp. 430, 431), "was very early connected with Boston and the neighborhood. William Whytinge of Boston is mentioned in the Subsidy Roll of Edward III. (1333). William Whyting of Deeping occurs in Dugdale, under the date 1352; and John and Robert Whiting of Thorpe, near Wainfleet, are named by the same authority as living in 1560." The earliest mention of this family in the corporation records is in 1590, when John Whiting was a member of the Common Council, and erection bailiff; and the first record of the family in the parish register is the baptism of John Whiting, son of John, on the 4th of June, 1592. John Whiting was mayor of Boston in 1600 and 1608:* he was the father of Samuel Whiting, who was born at Boston, aoth November, 1597, and who was entered of Emanuel College, Cambridge, 1613, and took his degrees of A.B. and A.M. in 1616 and 1620 respectively. He soon after received orders, and became chaplain in a family which was connected with the Bacons and Townsends of Norfolk, and continued in that position three years. He was afterwards settled as a colleague with Mr. Price at King's Lynn, in the same county. He remained three years at Lynn ; but complaints being made to the bishop of Norwich, of his nonconformity in administering the services of the Church, he removed to the rectory of Skirbeck, near Boston, where his nonconformity was also complained of, and led subsequently to his emigration to the American colonies." " He was married to his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter* of Oliver St. John, own cousin of Oliver Cromwell, and afterwards chief justice of England, at Boston, on the 6th of August, 1629. His brother John was mayor of Boston in 1626, 1633, 1644, and 1645.t James, another brother, was mayor in 1640. Robert Whiting surrendered the office of sergeant-at-mace, 28th June, 1631, and was elected marshal of die admiralty, which office he resigned 17th November, 1632. \ The Rev. Samuel Whiting resigned the rectory of Skirbeck in 1636, and emigrated to America. He arrived in Boston (N.E.) May 26, and in the following November removed to Lynn, in Massachusetts, where he officiated as minister until his death there, on the 1 1th December, 1679, when he was eighty-two years of age: his wife died in Lynn, in 1677, aged seventy-two. Mr. Whiting's second son, John, was a graduate of Harvard University. He returned to England, and was appointed rector of Leverton : he died in 1689. We believe the male line of the Whitings in this neighborhood became extinct by the death of the Rev. Samuel Whiting, rector of Fishtoft, in 1781.* His sister Mary married James Yorke; their son, James Whiting Yorke, a colonel in the British army, inherited the Rev. Samuel Whiting's property. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Abraham and Martha Sheath of Boston. His only son, James Whiting Yorke of Wallingsgate, near Louth, was sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1850 and 1851, and died in July, 1854, without issue." "The American branch of the Whiting family is at present represented by William Whiting, Esq., . . . President of the New-England Historical Society." t
* John Whiting, as appears by the records of the corporation of Boston, also held the office of vice-admiral of Lincolnshire in 1602 (Thompson, p. 459).
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REV. SAMUEL WHITING, D.D.
The family name of Whiting seems to have retained substantially the same pronunciation, though it has been spelled with not less than sixteen variations, between the years 1085 and 1630, as will be seen by the following extracts from English records, in which the dates and spellings have been carefully copied : —
1085. Roger Witen.
Alan de Witting (grandfather).
Alan de Witting (father).
1195. Everard de Witting, Yorkshire (son).
1202. Hugo Witeng, Dorset.
1207. Magister Johannes Witeing.
1214. Giffardo Witeng, Somerset.
1199-1216. WJllus de Witon, Yorkshire.
1217. Adam de Wyten, Yorkshire.
1276. Thomas de Whitene, Nottinghamshire.
1279. Wills. Whitingh, Oxfordshire.
1280. Agnes de Wyten, prioress of St. Clements,
city of York. 1306. Rogerus de Whitene, manucaptor of Williel
mus Ball, burgess returned for Cricklade. 1306. Walterus de Whiten, manucaptor of Johannes
de Graham and Rogerus de Reston, citizens
returned for York.
1312. Johannes Whyting, manucaptor of Richardus
Elyot, burgess returned for Portsmouth.
1313. John Whyting.
1316. Walterus Whilyng, certified pursuant to writ tested at Clipston, 5 March, 1316, as one of the lords of the townships of Seaton cum mcmbris and Merton cum membris in the county of York.
1321. Thomas Whityng, accused of having joined
with many others in forcibly entering upon the manors of Spene, &c., in the county of Berks; special commission of Oyer and Terminer issued for trying him .as well at the suit of Hugh le Despencer, Earl of Winchester, as at the suit of the king, fasted at Hurry, 28 May, 15 Edw. II.
1322. Thomas Whyting.
1326. Johannes de Whyten, de Lincoln, manucaptor
of Will. de Hakethorn, citizen returned for
Lincoln.
1327. Johannes de Whyten, de Lincoln.
1333- William Whytynge of Boston.
1352. William Whyting of Deeping, Lincolnshire. 1326-1377. Robtus de Whitene, Nottinghamshire.
1384. Thomas Whiten et Katerine uxor, Meltonby
and Grymethorpe manors, co. York. 1405. John de Wyten, sheriff of the city of York. 1421. John Wyton, 8 Henry V. 1450. Robert Whiting. 1455. Robert Whitingh, armiger, Bucks. 1509—1547. Thomas Whiting, Lincoln.
1524. Frater Johannes Whytyng, obt. 24 Junii, White
Friars Carmelite, diocese of Norwich. (See
Weaver's Funeral Monuments, p. 533.) 1526. Henry Wystyng, or Whytyng, principal of St.
Mary Magdalen College, Oxford. 1560. John and Robert Whiting of Thorpe, near
Wainfleet.
1600. John Whiting, mayor of Boston. •
1630. Rev. Samuel Whiting, D.D., the subject of
this memoir.
His name, as written by himself on the records of Emanuel College, Cambridge, when he entered as a student, was Samuel Whitingc, and this was undoubtedly the mode of writing it used by his family at that date: but he dropped the last letter after he came to this country; and his English and American descendants have, without exception it is believed, followed his example.
The author of the History and Antiquities of Boston, England,* writes as follows : —
" The earliest mention which I find of the Whiting family, in this district, is that of 'William Whytyng,' whose name is recorded A.D. 1333> as an inhabitant of Boston at that time." " In a very old mansion-house," says the same author, " situated within the parish of Leake, near Boston, and which old house is known by the name of St. Lawrence's Chantry, otherwise the Lesser Chantry, or the Moat House, are several old ' skutcheons' of arms over one of the chimney (mantle) pieces; and those are alluded to in my Collections, published in 1820. I have lately (1853) paid close attention to these coats, or scutcheons, and find the Whiting arms quartered upon two of them. They cannot be less than two hundred and fifty or three hundred years old, probably older. The first is the coat borne by the Hunston family of Leake, who were settled in that parish as early as temp. Richard I., perhaps earlier, and afterwards intermarried into the Sutton, Stickney, Whiting, Gedney, and Endefby families, all of whose arms are quartered on that shield; they being respectively, 1. Hunston; 2. Sutton; 3. Stickney; 4. Whytyng; 5 and 7. Gedney; 6 and 8. Enderby.
* Pishey Thompson, Esq., who, in his invaluable work, has garnered up the fruit of fifty years' research.
" The second shield" of which he gives a sketch drawn from the same mantle-piece, "quarters the arms of Smith of Elsham, in place of those of Gedney and Enderby, with the arms of Hunston, Sutton, Stickney, and Whiting."
" The Whiting arms, as quartered by the Hunstons in the old house at Leake, are the arms of the ancient family of Whiting of Lincolnshire."* This coat-of-arms, as shown in the engraving presented in this memoir, was borne by the ancestors of Rev. Samuel Whiting, and has been transmitted through him to his American descendants.*
* See Thompson's History of Boston, p. 585, where he gives a further account of St. Lawrence's Chantry, and of the armorial quarterings above referred to.
The residence t of the Lincolnshire Whitings of this family from the year 1333, and probably from a much earlier date, was at Boston, where William Whytynge was at that date taxed as a citizen.J The following extract from Thompson's work (pp. 160, 161), refers to the great church of St. Botolph, where, for several centuries, they have worshipped, and where the famous John Cotton preached, in memory of whom his English and American descendant? have recently adorned one of its most bcauti ful chapels.
" The foundation of the present steeple of Boston church is said to have been laid in 1309, although the tower was not carried up
* Sec appendix p. 265.
t In Thompson's History, p. 243, may be found an engraving of Hussey Tmvcr ; and in a note on that page, he says,—
"The Whiting family occupied this property from 1627 to 1668,except for a short period ; " but, as they were owners of several estates in and near Boston, it is not certain that this was at any time their principal homestead.
t See Subsidy Roll, temp. Edw. III., 1333, at Boston.
PREFIX: Also shown as Rev.
DEATH: Also shown as Died Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
DEATH: Also shown as Died 11 Dec 1679
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1597 - 1669 (72 years)
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