Rev Samuel Whiting

• BIRTH 21 Nov 1597 Boston, Boston Borough, Lincolnshire, England
• DEATH 11 Dec 1679 (aged 82) Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA
• BURIAL Western Burial Ground, Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA
• MEMORIAL ID 46119653 Photos by Lawrence Whiting

Rev. Samuel Whiting was the first pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Lynn, Massachusetts, serving there from 8 November 1636 until his death. The town where he settled elected to change its name from Saugus to Lynn in honor of his arrival, since he had departed England from Kings Lynn in Norfolk.

Samuel Whiting received BA and MA degrees from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. He received holy orders as a priest in the Church of England, and served as a family chaplain and as associate pastor in King's Lynn. His Puritan practices led to parishioners raising complaints about his ministry, and he subsequently moved to the Parish of Skirbeck, near Boston, Lincolnshire. Again, parishioners complained of his Puritan practices. He ultimately chose to emigrate with his family to Massachusetts Bay Colony, arriving in (new) Boston on 26 May 1636.

Rev. Whiting became a prominent minister and theologian in the colony, who had treatises and sermons published in both English and Latin. He was a colleague of Rev. John Cotton, a preeminent religious leader in Massachusetts Bay who had previously been Samuel Whiting's parish priest in Boston, Lincolnshire. Rev. Whiting was also a colleague of Rev. Increase Mather and his son Rev. Cotton Mather, who included an elegy of Samuel Whiting in his major work, "Magnalia Christi Americana." In 1654, Rev. Samuel Whiting was appointed as overseer of Harvard College (predecessor of Harvard University).

Three of Samuel Whiting's sons graduated from Harvard College and also became ministers. Eldest son Samuel Whiting Jr. became the minister of the Congregationalist Church in Billerica, MA. Second son John Whiting chose to emigrate to England and became the Anglican pastor of Butterwick Parish in Lincolnshire. Third son Joseph Whiting succeeded his father as pastor in Lynn, MA. In 1682, Joseph Whiting accepted an invitation to leave Massachusetts and become the pastor in Southampton, Long Island, New York, where he lived the rest of his life.

According to Mather, Samuel Whiting preached as chaplain three years in private families after his master's degree, and then went to Lynn Regis, Norfolk, England where he spent another three years as colleague or curate of the rector, and being disturbed by his diocesan, removed to Skirbeck, close to his native place. After burying his first wife by which he had two sons who died in England and one daughter brought to New England, Mather says he married a daughter of Oliver St. John, a Bedfordshire man. Samuel , his wife and son Samuel, came in the same ship with Wheelwright, who had been his neighbor in Lincolnshire, arriving 26 May 1636 and settled 8 Nov in Lynn, freeman 7 Dec. Samuel died not on 11 Nov as in the Lynn records, but 11 Dec 1679. [2]

Parents
John Whiting 1561–1617

Spouses
First wife of Reverend Samuel Whiting m. 1623
Elizabeth St John Whiting 1604–1677 (m. 1629)

Children
Dorothy Whiting Weld 1628–1694
Samuel Whiting (1633 - 1713)
John Whiting (1637 - 1689)
Joseph Whiting (1641 - 1723)
Elizabeth Whiting Hobart (1645 - 1733)

References

[1] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46119653/samuel-whiting

[2] http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bevangene...

Sources

[3] The pioneers of Massachusetts, a descriptive list, drawn from records of the colonies, towns and churches and other contemporaneous documents (1900)

[4] https://archive.org/details/pioneersofmassac00pope

[5] https://archive.org/stream/pioneersofmassac00pope#page/494/mode/1up Pg.494

Other Information

• *WHITING, WHYTING, WHITINGE,
• Rev. Samuel, b. in Boston, Lincolnshire, Eng. 20 Nov. 1570, son of John Whiting, Esquire, sometime mayor of Boston; grad. at Emanuel Coll. Camb.; was chaplain to Sirs Nathaniel Bacon and Roger Townsend 3 years, then colleague to Rev. Mr. Price 3 more. [C. M.] He was rector of the parish of Skirbeck, adjoining Boston till 1635, when he came to N. E. Became pastor of the chh. at Lynn, where he spent the rest of his life. Scholarly, devoted, popular, he had a strong hold on the regard of his people and was esteemed very highly by the leaders of the state. Frm. Dec, 1636. Had large estate. He m. 1, — , by whom he had two sons that d. in Eng. and a dau. that m. Mr. Thomas Weld in another land. [C. M.] He m. 2, Aug. 6, 1629, Elizabeth, dau. of Right Hon. Oliver St. John and his wife Sarah Bulkley. Her bro. Hon. Oliver St. John, was lord chief justice of England under Cromwell. [See account of Mrs. Whiting's pedigree, with its strains of royal blood, in the Whiting Memorial. See wills of her father, brother and other relatives in Reg. LII, 255.] Children, Samuel b. in Skirbeck March 25, 1633, (became minister of the chh. at Billerica,) Joseph, (also resided here,) John, Dorothy, (m. 4 June, 1650, Thomas Weld of Roxbury.) Elizabeth, (m. Rev. Jeremiah Hubbard). The wife d. 3 March, 1676-7, in her 73d year. [C. M.]
• He d. Dec. 11, 1679. Will dated 25 Feb. 1678, prob. 30 March, 1680, beq. to son Samuel, living at Billerica; John, living at Leverton, Lincolnshire, Eng.; Joseph, at Lynn; dau., wife of Jeremiah Hubbard, of Topsfield.