Samuel Whiting, Jr.

Rev Samuel Whiting Jr.The Reverend Samuel Whiting Jr. (1633–1713) was Billerica's first settled minister, serving in that role for 50 years. This longevity gave him a major role in shaping the town's early moral, religious, and civic life.

Career The Rev. Samuel Whiting Jr. graduated from Harvard in 1653. His father Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr. had written Oratio Quam Comitijs Cantabrigiensibus Americanis Peroravit reverendissimus D.D. Samuel Whiting Pastor Linnensis; in aula sci-licet Harvardina in 1649 as an opening address at Harvard University to celebrate its success. While some sources indicate Whiting Jr. had a brother, Nathaniel, this is in error. In his father's memoir, it is clear he had no son named Nathaniel.

Samuel Whiting Jr.'s student/assistant for one year was Samuel Ruggles, who succeeded him as Billerica's next pastor. Ruggles married Whiting Jr.'s daughter, Elizabeth on 19 December 1710.

Family and early life The Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr. stands behind (far right) of Governor John Winthrop (foreground) who meets with a Narragansett Native American warrior. The Rev. Skipper is behind Winthrop to the left.

Puritanism The Rev Samuel Whiting Jr. was born on 25 March 1633 in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England. He was the son of a Puritan, the Reverend Samuel Whiting Snr. (1597-1679) and his second wife, Elizabeth belonged to the prominent landowning family of St. John of Lydiard Tregoze; she was the sister and a leading lawyer and judge who was one of the foremost opponents of King Charles I of England during the English Civil War.

England 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 – who would study at Cambridge University with Whiting Snr. and sail in 1638 to join the Boston settlement before moving to nearby Lynn – were married in England in the Whiting family church, St Botolph's, on 11 August 1592. From 1630 to 1638, Rev. Skepper was the Church of England rector at Thorpe St Peter, Lincolnshire (also known as "Thorpe in the Marsh"), when the Whiting family were still prevalent in this area: both John and Robert Whiting of Thorpe, near Wainfleet, are recorded as living in the parish in 1560 in William Whiting's publication: Memoir of Rev. Samuel Whiting, D.D., and of his wife, Elizabeth St. John, with references to some of their English ancestors and American descendants.

Cambridge University, holy orders, marriage Sharing the same age, Whiting Snr. and the Rev William Skepper continued their friendship from their St Botolph's days through to university. The Rev. Skepper received holy orders after completing his B.A. degree at the Puritan-focused Sidney Sussex College (1618). Similarly, Whiting Snr. received his B.A. and Master of Arts degrees from Cambridge University's other Puritan college - Emmanuel (1618 and 1620) and proceeded to take holy orders. Whiting Snr. lived in Boston – the colony's "hub" – for six months 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 and the Rev. William Skipper/Skepper of Lynn 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.

Family's relationship with Oliver Cromwell In 1650, Rev. Samuel Whiting Snr.'s distant relative Oliver Cromwell (pictured) asked Whiting to go to Ireland to convert the Catholics to Puritanism.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 from the Massachusetts General Court on November 3, 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.

Marriage and death The Rev. Samuel Whiting Jr. married Dorcas Chester on 12 November 1656, in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. They were the parents of at least 8 sons and 4 daughters, including Elizabeth. He lived in Hartford, Connecticut Colony in 1656 and Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1656. In 1663, at the age of 30, he was an ordained minister in Billerica and died on 28 February 1713, in Billerica, at the age of 79. He was buried in Billerica.