Person:Samuel Whiting (12)

Sibley's Sketch of Rev. Samuel Whiting

"Samuel Whiting.

Born 1633, died 1713, aged 79.

Rev. Samuel Whiting, M. A., of Billerica, Massachusetts, was born 25 March, 1633, at Skirbeck, about 1 mile from Boston, in Lincolnshire, England. His father, the Reverend Samuel Whiting, born 20 November, 1597, son of John Whiting, Mayor of Boston, after being for some time a minister at Lynn Regis and Skirbeck, embarked with his neighbor, the Reverend John Wheelwright, for Boston, New England, where he arrived 26 May, 1636. On the eighth of November following he was settled at Lynn, where he died, 11 December, 1679. The graduate’s mother, Elizabeth, a second wife, sister of Oliver St. John, Chief Justice of England in the time of Cromwell, died at Lynn, 3 March, 1677-8.

Whiting continued at the College a year after graduating, and, what is remarkable, his quarter-bills, commonly settled by 'Samuell,' sometimes 'Samuell Whitting,' with the exception of two credits 'by the Psident by his schollership,' appear on the Steward’s books to have been almost always paid 'by siluer.'

May 11, 1656, he was made freeman.

As early as 1658, he was preaching at Billerica, Massachusetts. There was no meeting-house or church organization, hut nineteen persons then 'stipulated,' says Farmer, 'to give him and his heirs, a ten acre privilege, and a house comfortably finished with the accommodations belonging to it, if he should continue with them during his life,' with 'a salary of £40 for the first two years, £50 for the third, £60 for the fourth, and afterwards … to 'better his maintenance as the Lord should better their estates.' His stated salary after the fourth year, was £70.'

'Finding their numbers annually increasing, the town voted to build a meeting-house, 30 feet in length and 24 feet in width,' which, 'completed about 1660, … had no galleries till about 1679,' and was 'for several years … covered with thatch instead of shingles.'

November 11, 1663, the church was gathered, and Whiting was ordained. In 1669 there were eight admissions to the church, and twelve baptisms.

When a movement was made to settle the Reverend John Davenport over the First Church in Boston, Whiting was one of the seventeen ministers who bore testimony against it, and he afterward signed the address to the General Court in vindication of their conduct from the charge of innovation brought against them by a committee appointed by the House of Deputies in May, 1670.

In 1675, probably through his influence, the Selectmen of Billerica passed 'an order that all children and youth from eight years old and upwards, should be sent by their parents and masters to the reverend Mr. Whiting, to receive catechetical instruction at such times as should be appointed.'

In the October succeeding 2 August, 1675, when Timothy Farley, of Billerica, was killed in the engagement with the Indians at Quaboag, now Brookfield, Massachusetts, twelve garrisons were established in Billerica, Whiting's being 'the main garrison and the last refuge in case of extremity.' Many years afterward Whiting was called to sympathize with the relatives of parishioners who had been killed in Indian irruptions into the town, 1 August, 1692, and 5 August, 1695.

The second meeting-house, '44 feet in length and 40 feet in width,' voted 23 October, 1693, 'was erected, 16 July, 1694.' 'This service,' says an old diary, 'was attended by about 45 hands of our town the first day; and the town came generally the second day, and some of other towns. … The third day we concluded our work with our towns' help. No considerable harm was done — not a bone broken. We had the help of our reverend pastor to desire God's blessing, and when we had finished our work, we concluded with a psalm of praise and returned thanks to God by our reverend pastor.'

For several months in 1702-3 Whiting was too ill to perform ministerial labor, and his people hired John Fox, H. U. 1698, to assist him. The infirmities of age increasing, Samuel Ruggles, H. U. 1702, who began to preach at Billerica in 1707, was ordained as his colleague 19 May, 1708.

Whiting died 'an hour before Sun-set,' 28 February, 1712-13, having been the 'Faithful Minister of the Gospel, in the New-English Town of Billerica,' 'about 55 Years.'

'In a poem on his death … he has the following character.

'Whiting, we here beheld a starry light,
Burning in Christ’s right hand and shining bright;
Years seven times seven sent forth his precious rays,
Unto the gospel's profit and Jehovah's praise.''

November 12, 1656, he was married at Charlestown, to Dorcas, born 1 November, 1637, daughter of Leonard Chester, first of Watertown, Massachusetts, and afterwards of Wethersfield, Connecticut, whose mother, Dorothy, was sister of the Reverend Thomas Hooker, of Hartford. They lived together fifty-seven years, she dying 15 February, 1712—13, thirteen days before her husband. Of their seven sons two were graduates: John, in the class of 1685, killed by the Indians at Lancaster, Massachusetts, 11 September, 1697; and Joseph, in the class of 1690. Of their four daughters, Elizabeth, born 6 November, 1660, became, 2 October, 1702, second wife of the Reverend Thomas Clark, of Chelmsford, H. U. 1670."^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Samuel Whiting, in Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Cambridge, Mass.: C.W. Sever, 1873- 1885)
   1:363-66.
2. ↑ Foster, F. Apthorp (ed.). Vital Records of Billerica, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1908)
   402.

   Whiting, Samuel [dup. Samu[e]ll], Rev., Feb. 28, 1712-13. [Rev. Sameul [dup. Feb. 27], a. 80, GR1]
   [Birth about 1633. GR1=Old South Cemetery.]

3. ↑ Goodwin, Nathaniel. Genealogical Notes, or Contributions to the Family History of Some of the First Settlers of Connecticut and Massachusetts. (Hartford, CT: F.A. Brown, 1856)
   20.

   Dorcas Chester, d/o Leonard Chester and Mary ---, m. 12 Nov 1656 Rev. Samuel Whiting, s/o Rev Samuel Whiting of Lynn and second wife Elizabeth St. John, who d. 28 Feb 1713, aged 80.

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Samuel Whiting, in Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   4:521.

   "Samuel (Whiting), Billerica, s. of the preced. b. in Eng. freem. 1656, m. 12 Nov. of that yr. at Charlestown, Dorcas, d. of Leonard Chester of Wethersfield, had Eliz. b. 6 Oct. 1660; Samuel, 19 Dec. 1662; John, 1 July 1664, H. C. 1685, … Oliver, 8 Oct. 1665, … Mary, 28 Apr. 1667; Dorothy, 23 Aug. 1668; Joseph 7 Jan. 1670, H. C. 1690, d. 6 Aug. 1701; James, 20 July 1671; Eunice; Benjamin; and Benjamin, again; the four last d. inf. He was ord. 11 Nov. 1663, the first min. of B. tho. he had preach. there more than five yrs. bef. and he d. 28 Feb. 1713, his w. hav. d. a fortnight earlier."

5. ↑ Paige, Lucius R. List of Freemen. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct 1849)
   3:194.
6. ↑ Rev Samuel Whiting, in Find A Grave.