Archive:The Ancestry of John Whitney, Chapter VIII

From WRG

Jump to: navigation, search

Melville, Henry, A.M., LL.B., The Ancestry of John Whitney: Who, with His Wife Elinor, and Sons John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Jonathan, Emigrated from London, England, in the Year 1635, and Settled in Watertown, Massachusetts; the First of the Name in America, and the One from Whom a Great Majority of the Whitneys Now Living in the United States Are Descended (New York, NY: The De Vinne Press, 1896).

Back || Forward || Up


                 CHAPTER VIII.

           THE ANCESTRY OF JOHN WHITNEY.

Robert, third son of Sir Robert Whitney. Thomas Whitney of West-
  minster, son of Robert; his marriage, children, death, and estate.
  John Whitney, son of Thomas, shown to have been the emigrant by
  the records of the Merchant Taylors Company. Life of John Whit-
  ney, Puritan Emigrant.

                    CONTEMPORARIES.
     Persons.                              Events.
Queen Elizabeth . . . . . 1558-1603   Settlement or Jamestown . . 1607
King James I. . . . . . . 1603-1625   Settlement of Plymouth  . . 1620
King Charles I. . . . . . 1625-1649   First Newspaper in England  1622
The Commonwealth,                     Settlement of Boston  . . . 1630
    etc.  . . . . . . . . 1649-1660   Battle of Edgehill  . . . . 1642
King Charles II.  . . . . 1660-1685   Battle of Marston Moor  . . 1644
Raleigh.  . . . .  b. 1552, d. 1618   Battle of Naseby  . . . . . 1646
Shakespeare.  . .  b. 1564, d. 1616   Execution of Charles I  . . 1649
Bacon.  . . . . .  b. 1561, d. 1626   Battle of Worcester . . . . 1651
Cromwell. . . . .  b. 1590, d. 1658   Plague in London  . . . . . 1665
Milton. . . . . . .b. 1608, d. 1674   Great Fire in London  . . . 1666

THE investigations made by the late Henry Aus-
tin Whitney of Boston, about twenty years ago
disclosed that John Whitney, the first of the name to
come to America, embarked at the port of London,
in the spring of 1635, with his wife Elinor and his
sons John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Jona-

                          207

208         The Ancestry of John Whitney

than. Also that the two elder children were born
at Isleworth, a parish on the Thames just above
London.1
   It has also long been known that the emigrant
from the start assumed a position of prominence in
Watertown, where he settled, and filled acceptably
for many years public offices, in connection with
which he left documentary records which show him
to have been a man of education.
   The conclusion naturally followed that his birth-
place was in or near London and that he sprang from a
family of good social position, but no definite informa-
tion on either point has heretofore been obtainable.
   As it is believed that the records about to be cited
will forever set at rest any question as to his origin,
they will be discussed with considerable detail.
   The pedigree in the College of Arms mentions
Robert, third son of the Sir Robert who died in 1567
and brother of Sir James and Eustace; and we have
already seen that in an Inquisition, taken after his
father's death, the jurors reported that "the said
Robert Whitney, Knight, by his said Will, gave and
bequeathed to one Robert Whitney, and then of his
younger sons, a like annuity or annual rent of six
pounds thirteen shillings and four pence a year, issu-
ing out of the said Manor of Pencombe, to hold &c.
to the said Robert Whitney, the younger, for the
term of his life."
   If we had this will in full we would probably know
where Robert, Jr., lived. As it is, we can only con-

   1 See "A Brief Account of the Descendants of John and Elinor
Whitney;" also "Memoranda relating to Families by the name of
Whitney," etc., in library of New England Historical and Genealog-
ical Society, Boston, Mass.


[Picture omitted]

AUTOGRAPH OF SIR ROBERT WHITNEY, KNIGHT, FEBRUARY 20, 1640(41).
          Lay Subsidy Roll 116/470 in the Public Record Office, London.


            The Ancestry of John Whitney            209

jecture that it was in Gloucestershire, from the fact
that the Heralds' Visitation of that county, in 1623,
found in Harleian Manuscript No.1041 (see Appen-
dix), gives his marriage and children as follows:

      Robert Whitney = Sibill, d. to Sir James
      Baskerville.   |
          ___________|
         |
      Robert Whitney = Elizabeth, d. to Morgan ap
                     |         Gwillims.
       ______________|____________________________
      |       |        |        |         |       |
   William  Thomas  Richard  Nicholas  Margaret  Anne

   The same list of his sons and daughters is given in
the Visitation of London for 1634, printed in publi-
cations of the Harleian Society, Vol. XV, at page
157; in the printed Visitation of Herefordshire,
Weaver's Ed., at page 75; and in the Visitation of
Herefordshire, Harleian Manuscripts, in British Mu-
seum, No. 1159, folio 65; No.1140, folios 65, 66; and
No.1545, folios 68, 69.
   Another of the Harleian Manuscripts, No. 1442
(see Appendix), gives a line of descent from this
Thomas Whitney as follows:

   Folio 66.
             Sr Robert Whitney of Whitney, Kt.
                          |
         _________________|______
        |         |              |      
   Sir James   Eustace   Robt. Whitney 3 sonn of
                          Sr Robert Whitney Kt.
                                 |
                           Tho. Whitney of Westminster
                                 |
                           Robert Whitney of Westminster
                                 |
                           John Whitney
                           aet. 38, ano. 1676.

210         The Ancestry of John Whitney

   Folio 67.
        Robert Whitney 3 sonne of Sr Robert
                   Whitney, Kt.
                       |
               Thomas Whitney of
               Westminster, Gent.
                       |
         Robert Whitney of Westminster
         mar. Mary da. of John Towers
                of Shropshire.
                       |
            John Whitney, claimeth
     to be heire male of the whole Family.

   The fact that "Thomas Whitney, Gent." lived at
Westminster attracts our attention, for Westminster,
being part of what is now popularly known as the
city of London1 and close to Isleworth, is in the
neighborhood whore we may expect to get track of
the emigrant and the possible advantage of investi-
gating him appears greater from the fact that he had
a grandson "John," not the Watertown John,--for
it appears that this one was born in 1638, three years
after the emigration,--but possibly his namesake.
   Turning to the available records relating to the
city of Thomas's residence, we find, first, a marriage
license, by the dean and chapter of Westminster, of
which the following is a translation:

      The 10th day of the Month of May, 1583, there issued a
   license for the solemnization of Matrimony between Thomas
   Whitney of Lambeth Marsh, gentleman, with Mary Bray,
   daughter of John Bray of Westminster, taylor, to be cele-

   1 In the seventeenth century London and Westminster were distinct
municipalities lying side by side.  Westminster Abbey was about two
miles from the Guildhall, London.


[Picture omitted]

      PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARGARET, WESTMINSTER.
          Westminster Abbey in the background.

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            211

   brated at any time in the year, Lent expected, and a bond
   is drawn up.

   Lambeth Marsh is a name still applied to the re-
gion at the south end of. Westminster Bridge. Here
was and still is the Palace of the Archbishop of Can-
terbury. The incumbent at that time was the one
to whom, as we have seen, a John Whitney, in 1597,
willed his "ring of gold set wth a turquoys." This
has suggested to some the idea that his Grace may
have been a patron of young Thomas. The marriage
took place in St Margaret's Church, now under the
charge of Archdeacon Farrar, which stands by the
famous Abbey. The record in the register is:

                  May 12 Dai 1583, Thomas
                  Whiteney to Mary Bray.

   From the St. Margaret Registers, kept by the
officiating clergyman, it appears that they had the
following children:
   1. Margaret, baptized October 18, 1584, and ap-
parently named after an aunt. There is, in these
registers, no record of her death, but the parish ac-
counts for 1604-5, kept by the church wardens, state
that money was received for "Margaret Whitney's
grave." Inasmuch as these two classes of records as
a rule agree, the indication is that she died in some
other parish, where the funeral service was held, and
was brought home afterward for interment. The
register of Isleworth, seven miles from Westminster,
has this among it's death records:

      January 12, 1604, 5, Margaret, ye daughter of Thomas
   Whitneye.

212         The Ancestry of John Whitney

As no such person was ever baptized at Isleworth
and not the slightest evidence can be found that any
Thomas Whitney lived there, it is pretty obvious that
we have, in the last-mentioned entry, an explanation
of the peculiarity of those at Westminster. The sug-
gested connection between Westminster and Isle-
worth is to be borne in mind in reading what follows.
   2. Thomas, named for his father, baptized July 25,
1587; buried August 19, 1587.
   3. Henry, baptized November 11, 1588; buried Jan-
uary 4, 1588-89.
   4. Arnwaye, baptized February 2, 1589-90; buried
August 11, 1591. The origin of this peculiar name is
suggested by a monument to a person living at these
dates, still to be seen in St. Margaret's, inscribed:

      Interred here in graue, doth Thomas Arnwaye Lye,
   Who in his life tyme loued the Poore & in that loue did dye,
   For what be left, to Helpe the Poore; HE did devise the same,
   Not idlell Folke, but such as woulde them selfs to Goodness frame,
   The Thriftie peopell by his will that in this parishe dwell
   Fyue poundes for ther comforte may haue if yt they use it well
   From yeare to yeare if carefullie they looke unto their charge,
   Of such men as this Arnwaye was God make the number large.

   5. JOHN, named probably for either his maternal
grandfather or the friend of the archbishop before
mentioned,--possibly for the archbishop himself,--
baptized July 20, 1592.  This is about the date at
which we would naturally conclude a man was prob-
ably born who, like the emigrant, had a child in 1619.

[Picture omitted]

      EXTRACT FROM THE PARISH REGISTER OF ST. MARGARET'S
                     CHURCH, WESTMINSTER.

               Showing baptism of John Whitney.

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            213

   6. Nowell, baptized October 30, 1594; buried Feb-
ruary 28, 1596-97.
   7. Francis, baptized January 27, 1598-99, died in
Westminster in August, 1643.
   8. Mary, named for her mother, baptized August
2, 1600; buried August 8, 1600.
   9. Robert, named for his paternal grandfather,
baptized November 10, 1605. This was the Robert
mentioned in the pedigrees above cited who, accord-
ing to one of them, had the son John born in 1638.
This enables us to identify him with the Robert
Whitney mentioned in the registers of the parish of
St. Peter's, Cornhill, London, who had a son John
baptized there February 10, 1638, and other children,
Thomas, Richard, Robert, and Margaret, and was
buried there in 1662, the record of the last being

      1662 Aprill 3. Robert Whitney, Marchaunt Taylor, pitt
   in the east yeard.

All the children of Thomas of Westminster are
thus accounted for, except John.
   Of Thomas's life little can be learned. In his day
there was scarcely anything at Westminster except
the abbey and the court.  He was a "gentleman"
and, as we shall see, in comfortable circumstances,
so it is not unreasonable to suppose that he had some
governmental position.
   He paid taxes, as appears from a certificate, made
in 1611, of which the following is a copy:

      Certificates of residence (Bundle 16) letter W. Midd.
   Wee whose names are heere underwritten Comissionn'
   of or Sov'aigne Ld: the Kinges Matie wthin the cittie
   and libties of Westmins. and the Dutchie of Lanc, for the

214         The Ancestry of John Whitney

   taxinge levynge and collectinge of the second payment of
   one subsedye graunted by the laitie to the Kinges Matie
   at the pliament holden in the VIIth yeare of his highnes'
   Raigne, doe certifie to the right hoble the Ld. Trer and to
   the Barons of the Exchequier and to all other his Matie
   officers and Commission's to wbome it shall apptaine. That
   Thomas Whitney of the pishe of St. Margarett in Westmr.
   aforesayd was taxed and assessed at the second payment
   of the sayd subsidie in the sayd pishe of St Margarett
   in Westmr where he was most conv'sant and residant
   with his familie and houshold at the tyme of the taxaton
   and p'sentment of the sayd subsidie and for the most pte
   of the yeare next before and hath made payment accord-
   inglie as by the hand of the Collector heereunto doth ap-
   peare. In witnesse whereof wee the Comissionn' to this
   p'sent certificate have sette our handes and Seales the
   XIIth day of Maye 1611 in the IXth yeare or the Kinges
   Maties Raigne of England Fraunce and Ireland and of
   Scotland the XLIIIIth.
      Edw. Forsett.                   Ed: Doubledun.

   I have rec. of Thomas Whitney of St. Margarett in Westmr
   for the second and last paymt of one subsidy graunted
   to the Kinges Matie in the VIIth yeare of his highnes
   Reigne the somme of                              IIIs
                                       Ed: Dobbinsoun.
                  Midd.
            Citas Westmr.
   Thomas Whitney in bon.  III£   IIIs
     
   His father-in-law, John Bray, died in 1615, and in
"Act Book III." folio 20, at Somerset House, there is
a record, made December 6, 1615, of the probate of
his will and the appointment of "Thomas Whitney
and Mary his wife," executors. The will itself cannot
be found, for all the registry books of that year are lost.
   Mrs. Whitney, according to the churchwardens' ac-

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            215

counts, hired a part of a pew in St. Margaret's Church.
She is on record, for example, as paying "IIIs IIIId"
for it in 1605, and "IIIIs" in 1616 and 1621. The
fact that the transaction was in her name and that a
whole pew was not needed may indicate that Thomas
was not particularly interested in such matters. A
possible reason is that he had embraced Puritanism
and become a nonconformist to the discipline of the
Church of England.
   "Mrs. Mary Whitney" was buried September 25,
1629, and the churchwardens wrote down

      Of Mris Marie Whitney, for her graue   VIs--VIIId
           "    "      "             Cloathe IIs--VId
           "    "      "             Bells   VIs-- "

   Thomas died in 1637. The Register of Burials has

      1637 Aprill 14. Mr. Whitney.

   The churchwardens complete the identification
with the entry:

      Mr. Thomas Whitney for his Graue   Vs--IIIId
                "                Cloath IIs--VId
                "                Bells  VIs-- "

And in another place say:

      Received of diuers other Inhabitants of the Parish, att
   the Buriall of their friends and children, as their Benevo-
   lence to the poore Hospitall Children appearing by their
   names and summes as followeth:
      At the Burial of * * * * Thomas Whitney XXs.

   He left no will, so on May 8, 1637, as appears from
the records of the court of the Dean and Chapter of
Westminster, administration was taken out.

216         The Ancestry of John Whitney

                    TRANSLATION.

      On the 22d day of the month aforesaid by the venerable
   Thomas Eden, Doctor of law, the Commissary &c. adminis-
   tration was granted of all and singular the goods, rights
   credits and chattels of Thomas Whitney, late while he lived
   of the parish of St. Margaret in the City of Westminster,
   deceased, as is said, intestate, to Francis Whitney and Rob-
   ert Whitney, natural and legitimate sons of the deceased,
   to whom administration &c.

   Subsequently the administrators charged them-
selves with an estate of two hundred and thirty-nine
pounds ten shillings--equivalent to somewhere from
six to ten thousand dollars at the present day, less
debts, one of which was,

      To severall workemen, as Brickelayers, carpenters, glaz-
   yers and other workmen for materials and other charges
   touchinge the repayringe of the said deceased's dwelling
   howse before his death the some of                 XL£

   There is no record of the distribution of the estate
or further statement as to the next of kin.
   His real estate, if any, passed directly to his heirs,
and that he had such property is suggested by both
the fact that, on one occasion, he was called a "yeo-
man," and by the sum just mentioned as laid out in
repairs on his residence, too large to have been ex-
pended on a hired house.
   It will be noted that, though we have no reason to
suppose him dead, John, son of Thomas, in 1637,
did not receive administration, though older than
Francis and Robert.
   If he was the one who went to Watertown in 1635
the explanation is apparent, and therefore we come

                                                     THE ANCESTRY OF JOHN WHITNEY


       TURSTIN "the Fleming,"       = AGNES, dau. of Alrued de Mer-                                                                                             WILLIAM I., Duke of  = MATILDA, dau. of Baldwin,
        otherwise known as "Turs-  |  leberge. A Norman Baron, of                                                                                               Normandy, commonly  |  Earl of Flanders and grand-
        tin de Wigmore," and prob- |  Ewias Castle in the Marches of                                                                                            called "William the |  daughter of Robert, King of
        ably also as "Turstin the  |  Wales.  Both mentioned in                                                                                                 Conqueror." King of |  France.
        son of Rolf," and "Turstin |  Domesday Book, A. D. 1086.                                                                                                England 1066-1087   |
        the White." A follower of  |                                                                                                                        ________________________|
        William the Conqueror.     |                                                                                                                       |
        Mentioned in Domesday      |                                                                                                                    HENRY I., b. 1068, d. 1135. = MATILDA, dau. of Malcolm III.,
        Book, A., D. 1086, as an   |                                                                                                                     King of England 1100-      |  King of Scotland, by Margaret,
        extensive landholder in    |                                                                                                                     1135.                      |  granddaughter of Edmund
        Herefordshire and the      |                                                                                                                                                |  Ironside, the last of the West
        Marches of Wales.          |                                                                                                                                                |  Saxon Kings.
             ______________________|________________                                                                                                                                |_____
            |                                       |                                                                                                                                     |
         EUSTACE, a benefactor     =             TURSTIN, mentioned in deed given                                                                              GEOFFREY PLANTAGENET = MATHILDA
          of the Monastery of St.  |               by his brother and mother to                                                                                Earl of Anjou.       |
          Peter in Gloucester, &c. |               monastery of St. Peter.                                                                                            ______________|
          He, or one of his imme-  |                                                                                                                                 |
          diate descendants, took  |                                                                                                                            HENRY II., b. 1333  = ELEANOR, dau. and heir of
          the surname De Whit-     |                                                                                                                             d. 1189. King of   |  William, Duke of Aquitaine,
          ney, from Whitney on     |                                                                                                                             England 1154-1189. |  and divorced wife of Louis
          the Wye, in the Mar-     |                                                                                                                                                |  VII., King of France.
          ches of Wales, where his |                                                                                                                               _________________|
          principal castle was lo- |                                                                                                                              |
          cated.                   |                                                                                                                        JOHN, b. 1167, d. 1216, = ISABELLA, dau. of Aymer
                                   |                                                                                                                         King of England,       |  Count of Angouleme.
      NOTE.-Three or four genera-  |                                                                                                                         1199-1216.             |
       tions cannot be stated with |                                                                                                                                ________________|
       certainty. A Sir Baldwin    |                                                                                                                               |
       de Whitney probably had     |                                                                                                                           HENRY III., b. 1207, = ELEANOR, dau. of the Count
       one place in the line.      |                                                                                                                            d. 1272, King of    |  of Provence.
            _______________________|                                                                                                                            England, 1216-1272. |
           |                                                                                                                                                   _____________________|
        SIR ROBERT DE WHITNEY      =                                                                                                                          |
         of Whitney, &c., Knight.  |                                                                                  MARGARET, dau. of Philip III., =     EDWARD I., b. 1239,      = ELEANOR, dau. of Ferdinand
         Living in 1242. Mentioned |                                                                                   King of France. 2d wife.      |      d. 1307. King of        |  III., King of Castile. 1st wife.
         in the "Testa de Nevill." |                                                               __________________________________________________|                              |
    _______________________________|                                                              |                                                                                 |____
   |                                                                                    EDMUND OF WOODSTOCK,         = MARGARET, dau. of John,                                           |
SIR EUSTACE DE WHITNEY             =                                                     Earl of Kent, espoused the  |  Baron Wake.                       HUMPHREY de BOHUN,        = ELIZABETH.
 of Whitney, &c., Knight. About    |                                                     cause of deposed            |                                     Earl of Hereford and Es- |
 1280 gave deed to monastery of    |                                                     and in consequence was be-  |                                     sex, Lord High Consta-   |
 St. Peter in Gloucester, refer-   |                                                     headed at Winchester in the |                                     ble. Killed at Battle of |
 ring to and confirming deed of    |                                                     early part of reign of Ed-  |                                     Boroughbridge, March 16, |
 his ancestors above mentioned.    |                                                     ward III.                   |                                     1321.                    |
 Lord of Pencombe, Little Co-      |                                                                                 |_____                                                         |___
 warn, and Whitney in 1281.        |                                                                                       |                                                            |
 Granted Free Warren by Ed-        |                                                       THOMAS HOLLAND,           = JOAN, "the Fair Maid of Kent,"       ROBERT de FERRERS,      = AGNES.
 ward I. in 1284. Summoned to      |                                                        Knight of the Garter,    |  Lady of Wake, &c. mar. 1st           2nd Baron Ferrers, of  |
 military service beyond the       |                                                        Captain General of Brit- |  William de Montacute, Earl of        Chartley, son of John, |
 seas in 1297. Tenant of a part    |                                                        tany, France, and Nor-   |  Salisbury.                           1st Baron and grandson |
 of the Manor of Huntington in     |                                                        mandy; commander of      |                                       of Robert, 8th Earl of |
 1299. Summoned to the Scotch      |                                                        van of Prince Edward's   |                                                              |
 War in 1301. Possibly grand-      |                                                        army at Cr cy.  Died     |                                           ___________________|
 son instead of son of Sir Robert. |                                                        1360.                    |                                          |
      _____________________________|                                                            _____________________|                                       JOHN de FERRERS,       = ELIZABETH, dau. of Rolf, 1st
     |                                                                                         |                                                              3d Baron of Chartley. |  Earl of Stafford, who had a
  SIR EUSTACE DE WHITNEY           =                                                       THOMAS HOLLAND,           = ALICE FITZ ALLEN, dau. of              In the Wars of Gas-   |  principal command in the van
   of Whitney, &c., Knight.        |                                                        Earl of Kent; Baron Hol- |  Richard, Earl of Arundel.             cony, 1350. Died,     |  at Cre'cy.
   Knighted by Edward I. in 1306.  |                                                        land, Woodstock, and     |                                        April 2, 1367.        |
   Member of Parliament for        |                                                        Wake, &c.  Died 1397.    |                                                              |
   Herefordshire in 1813 and 1352. |                                                                                 |                                           ___________________|
     ______________________________|                                                                                 |                                          |
    |                                                                                                                |                                       ROBERT de FERRERS,     = MARGARET, dau. of Edward,
 SIR ROBERT DE WHITNEY             =                                                                                 |                                        4th Baron of Chartley |  Lord Le Despenser.
  of Whitney, &c., Knight. One     |                                                                                 |                                        Died March 13, 1413.  |
  of 200 gentlement who in 1368    |                                                           ______________________|                                                              |
  went to Milan in the retinue     |                                                          |                                                               ______________________|
  of the Duke of Clarence on the   |                                                      EDMUND HOLLAND,            =                                       |
  occastion of the latter's mar-   |                                                       Earl of Kent, Duke of     |                                    EDMUND de FERRERS,        = ELEANOR, dau. and coheir of
  riage. Member of Parliament      |                                                       Surrey, Baron Holland,    |                                     5th Baron of Chartley.   |  Thomas, Lord Roche.
  for Herefordshire in 1376, 1379, |                                                       Woodstock, and Wake.      |                                     A participant in most of |
  and 1380; Sheriff of Hereford-   |                                                       Earl Marshall, Lord       |                                     the great victories of   |
  shire in 1377.                   |                                                       Lieutenant of Ireland.    |                                     Henry V. Died 1436.      |
          _________________________|                                                       Together with Earl of     |                                                              |
         |                                                                                 Salisbury taken prisoner  |                                          ____________________|
      SIR ROBERT DE WHITNEY        =                                                       and beheaded at battle of |                                         |
       of Whitney, &c., Knight.    |                                                       Cirencester in 1400, on   |                                      WILLIAM de FERRERS,     = ELIZABETH, dau. of Sir Hamon
       Sent abroad to negotiate    |                                                       account of loyalty to his |                                       6th Baron of Chartley. |  Belknap, Knight.
       treaty with Count of        |                                                       cousin, the deposed Rich- |                                       Died 1450.             |
       Flanders in 1388. Member    |                                                       ard II.                   |____                                                          |
       of Parliament for Here-     |                                                                                      |                                                         |___
       fordshire in 1391. Sent     |                                                         JAMES TOUCHET,          = ELEANOR, Posthumous child                                        |
       to France to deliver Castle |                                                          Baron Audley, killed   |  of Thomas Holland,          SIR WALTER DEVEREUX,            = ANNE,
       and Town of Cherbourg       |                                                          while leading Lancas-  |  Earl of Kent.                Knight. Baron Ferrers in       |  only child.
       to King of Navarre in       |                                                          trian forces at battle |                               right of his wife.  Killed at  |
       1393. Knight Marshal at     |                                                          of Blore Heath, in     |                               Bosworth Field, Aug. 22, 1485. |
       the Court of Richard II.    |                                                          1359.                  |                                                              |
       Sent on the King's busi-    |                                                                                 |                                                              |____
       ness to Ireland in 1394.    |                                                                                 |                                                                   |
       Killed, together with his   |                                                                                 |                             SIR JAMES BASKERVILLE            = KATHERINE.
       brother and most of his     |                                                                                 |                              of Eardisley, Knight. Several   |
       relatives at the battle of  |                                                                                 |                              times Sheriff of Hereford-      |
       Pilleth in 1402.            |                                                                                 |                              shire. Knight Banneret on       |
        ___________________________|____________________________________                                             |                              the battlefield of Stoke, 1487. |
       |                                                                |                                            |                              Knight of the Bath at corona-   |
    SIR ROBERT WHITNEY             =                             THOMAS. One of the "lances"                         |                              tion of Henry VII.              |
     of Whitney, &c., Knight.      |                              in the retinue of the Duke of                      |                                                              |
     Granted Castle of Clifford    |                              Gloucester at the battle of                        |                                    __________________________|
     and Lordships of Clifford     |                              Agincourt in 1415. Granted an                      |                                   |
     and Glasbury by Henry         |                              estate in France, for his ser-                     |                               SIR WALTER BASKERVILLE         = ANNE, da. of Morgan ap
     IV., in 1404, on account of   |                              vices, by Henry V. in 1419.                        |                                of Eardisley, Knight. Sheriff |  Jenkyn ap Phillip of
     services of his father.       |                                                                                 |                                of Herefordshire. Knight of   |  Pencoyd.
     Sheriff of Herefordshire      |                                                                                 |                                the Bath. 1501.               |
     in 1413, 1428, and 1433, and  |                             SIR DAVID GAM, killed at battle                     |                                                              |
     1437. Member of Parlia-       |                              of Agincourt, 1415; had dau.                       |                                            __________________|
     ment in 1416 and 1422. Fought |                              Gladys.                                            |                                           |
     in French War under           |                                 |                                               |                                       SIR JAMES BASKERVILLE  = ELIZABETH, dau. and coheir
     Henry V. Captain of Cas-      |                             SIR ROGER VAUGHN, of Bredwar-                       |                                        of Eardisley, Knight. |  of John Beynton by Sybil,
     tle and Town of Vire in       |                              dine. Killed at battle of Agin-                    |                                                              |  dau. and coheir of Simon
     1420. Named as one of         |                              court, 1415. Married Gladys,                       |                                                              |  Milbourne.
     the 5 knights in Hereford-    |                              dau. of Sir David Gam, and had                     |                                                              |
     shire in 1433. Died March     |                                 |                                               |                                                              |
     12, 1441.                     |                             THOMAS VAUGHN of Hergest.                           |                                                              |
        ___________________________|                              By wife Ellen Gethyn had                           |                                                              |
       |                                                             |                                               |                                                              |
    SIR EUSTACE DE WHITNEY         = JENNET, dau. of Sir Thomas      |                                               |                                                              |
     of Whitney, &c., Knight. Born |  Russell (some authorities say  |                                               |                                                              |
     in 1411. Head of commission   |  Sir William Trussell), Knight, |                                               |                                                              |
     sent to Wales by Henry VI. in |  by dau. of Sir John Ludlow,    |                                               |                                                              |
     1455. Member of Parliament    |  Knight; and 2d, Jane, dau. of  |                                               |                                                              |
     for Herefordshire in 1468.    |  Sir Robert Clifford, Knight.   |                                               |                                                              |
             ______________________|     ____________________________|                                               |                                                              |
            |                           |                                                                            |                                                              |
         ROBERT WHITNEY of         = ALICE, first wife. Died without                                                 |                                                              |
          Whitney, &c. Probably       male issue.                                                                    |                                                              |
          a knight. An active            ____________________________________________________________________________|                                                              |
          participant in the War        |                                                                                                                                           |
          of the Roses. Attainted  = CONSTANCE, second wife.                                                                                                                        |
          as a Yorkist by Lancas-  |  Mother of Robert's children.                                                                                                                  |
          trian Parliament in      |                                                                                                                                                |
          1459. Probably at battle |                                                                                                                                                |
          of Mortimer's Cross in   |                                                                                                                                                |
          1461. Subject of poem    |                                                                                                                                                |
          by Lewis Glyn Cothi on   |                                                                                                                                                |
          occasion of his marriage |                                                                                                                                                |
          to great-granddaughter   |                                                                                                                                                |
          of Sir David Gam.        |                                                                                                                                                |
              _____________________|_______________________________________________                                                                                                 |
             |                                                                     |                                                                                                |
          JAMES WHITNEY, of        = BLANCHE, dau. and one of the          JOAN, mar. Sir Roger Vaughan of                                                                          |
           Whitney, &c. Appoin-    |  heirs of Simon Milbourne.             Porthame in Talgarth, Knight.                                                                           |
           ted receiver of New-    |  Brought her husband the               M. P., 1547, 1552, 1553, 1554,                                                                          |
           port, part of estate of |  Manor of Icomb in Gloucester-         1558.                                                                                                   |
           Duke of Buckingham,     |  shire. She married, 2d, Sir                                                                                                                   |
           confiscated by Henry    |  William Herbert, Knight, of                                                                                                                   |
           VIII., in 1522.         |  Troy, Monmouthshire.                                                                                                                          |
          _________________________|__________________________________________________________________________                                                                      |
         |                                                             |                                   |  |                                                                     |
      ROBERT WHITNEY, of           = MARGARET, dau. of Robert       JAMES, Sewer at Court of Henry      WATKIN, mar. Margaret, dau. and                                             |
       Icomb, placed in charge     |  Wye, of Gloucestershire.       VIII. in 1516. Receiver Gen-        heir of Jenkin Reese of Clyro,                                             |
       of Brecknock, Hay, and      |                                 eral, &c., numerous estates         in Radnorshire.                                                            |
       confiscated estates of      |                                 1536. Died 1544.                                                                                               |
       Duke of Buckingham, in      |                                                                    ELIZABETH, mar. Thomas Morgan                                               |
       1523. In commission of      |                                                                     of Arkelon, by whom had Anne,                                              |
       peace for Gloucester-       |                                                                     who mar. Henry Carey, Lord                                                 |
       shire from 1524 till 1541.  |                                                                     Hunsdon.                                                                   |
       Sheriff of Gloucester-      |                                                                                                                                                |
       shire 1527, 1528, 1529, and |                                                                                                                                                |
       1530. Nominated Knight      |                                                                                                                                                |
       of the Bath by Henry        |                                                                                                                                                |
       VIII. at coronation of      |                                                                                                                                                |
       Anne Boleyn in 1533.        |                                                                                                                                                |
       Granted part of income      |                                                                                                                                                |
       of monastery of Bruerne     |                                                                                                                                                |
       on its suppression in       |                                                                                                                                                |
       1535. Furnished 40 men      |                                                                                                                                                |
       for putting down rebel-     |                                                                                                                                                |
       lion in 1536. Names "to     |                                                                                                                                                |
       attend upon the King's      |                                                                                                                                                |
       person." Died in 1541.      |                                                                                                                                                |
       Will proved in Preroga-     |                                                                                                                                                |
       tive Court of Canter-       |     ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|
       bury, June 11, 1541.        |    |
        ___________________________|___ | ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                |                |                                  |          |           |          |          |           |          |
    SIR ROBERT WHITNEY of          = SYBIL.           JOHN, the friend and bedfellow     CHARLES.    GEORGE.    WILLIAM.    JAMES.    RICHARD.    BLANCHE.    MARY.
     Whitney, &c., Knight. Dub-    |                   of Roger Ascham, tutor to
     bed in October, 1553, the day |                   Princess, afterward Queen
     after Queen Mary's corona-    |                   Elizabeth. Mentioned at length
     tion. Summoned before the     |                   in "The Ready Way to the Latin
     Privy Council in 1536 and     |                   Tongue."
     1559. Member of Parlia-       |
     ment for Herefordshire in     |
     1559. Died August 5, 1567.    |
     ______________________________|_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    |                                 |                                                                                                          |                                                            |  |
SIR JAMES WHITNEY of               EUSTACE WHITNEY of Whitney,       = MARGARET, dau. and coheir of                                           ROBERT WHITNEY, of Whit-          = ELIZABETH, dau. of       BLANCHE, mar. Robert Greville.
 Whitney, &c., Knight, Born         &c., Sheriff of Herefordshire in |  William Vaughn of Glasbury.                                            ney, &c. Mentioned in will of    |  Morgan Guillims [or
 in 1541. Knighted by               1596. Died in July, 1608.        |  Died in July, 1606.                                                    his father, Sir Robert, and also |  Duglim].                ELIZABETH, mar. John Pryce.
 Queen Elizabeth at Wind-               _____________________________|__________________________________________                               in inquisition taken after the   |
 sor in 1570. Sheriff of Here-         |                                                                    | | |                              latter's death.                  |
 fordshire in 1574, 1576, and      SIR ROBERT WHITNEY of Whit-      = ANNE, dau. of Sir Thomas Lucy       ELEANOR, married Sir Henry              ______________________________|________________________________________
 1587. A suitor, in 1581, for       ney, &c., Knight. Born Sep-     |  of Charlcote, in Warwickshire.      Williams.                             |                                                               | | | | |
 the hand of Barbara Gamage,        tember 15, 1591. Dubbed by      |                                                                         THOMAS WHITNEY, of West-      = MARY, dau. of John BRAY of        NICHOLAS.
 who afterward became               James I. in 1617.  Sheriff of   |                                     JOAN, married John Wigmore.          minster, Gentleman. Buried   |  Westminster. Buried in           WILLIAM.
 Countess of Leicester. Died        Herefordshire in 1630. Fought   |                                                                          in St. Margaret's, April 14, |  St. Margaret's, September        RICHARD.
 May 31, 1587. Will proved          as officer of Cavaliers at Wor- |                                     THOMAS, A. B. Oxford. Prob-          1637.                        |  25, 1629.                        MARGARET.
 in Prerogative Court of            cester in 1651. Died in Septem- |                                      ably the Captain Whitney who                                     |                                   ANNE.
 Canterbury, June 16, 1587.         ber, 1653.                      |                                      commanded whip "Encounter"                                       |
 Mentions as part of his Es-                                        |                                      in fleet of Sir Walter Raleigh.                                  |
 tate 10 manors, viz: 1, Whit-                                      |                                                                                                       |
 ney; 2, Clifford; 3, Pen-                                          |                                                                                                       |
 combe; 4, Ocle Pitchard;                                           |                                                                                                       |
 5, King's Capell; 6, Bough-                                        |                                                                                                       |
 rid; 7, Tremayne; 8.                                               |                                                                                                       |
 Icomb; 9, Clifton; and 10,                                         |                                                                                                       |
 Comwiche.                                                          |                                                                                                       |
     _______________________________________________________________|________________________________________________________                                  _____________|___________________________________________
    |                                |                                 | | |                        |||||||                  |                                |                                                  ||||||||
CONSTANCE, died 1608. Subject     LUCY, married 1st, William Small-   ANNE, mar. Thomas Rodd.       ANNE.                SIR THOMAS WHITNEY, of Whit-      JOHN WHITNEY, of          = ELINOR                    MARGARET, b. 1584, d. 1604.
 of monument in St. Giles with-    man; 2d, Capt. John Booth.         ELEANOR, mar. Dr. Wright.     ROBERT.               ney, &c. Knight of the Royal      London, England, and        Born in England in       THOMAS, b. 1587, d. 1587.
 out Cripplegate, London.          Died in 1673. Subject of mon-      SUSAN, mar. Henry Williams.   FRANCIS.              Oak. Mar. Elizabeth, dau. of      Watertown, Massachu-        1599. Died in Water-     HENRY, b. 1588, d. 1589.
                                   ument in Hereford Cathedral.                                     RICHARD.              Col. William Cope, of Icomb.      setts. Baptized July        town, May 11, 1659.      ARNWAYE, b. 1590, d. 1591.
                                                                                                    ELIZABETH.            Died in 1670 without issue.       20, 1592. Emigrated                                  NOWELL, b. 1594, d. 1597.
                                                                                                    BRIDGET.              The last of the Whitneys of       May, 1635. Died June                                 FRANCIS, b. 1599, d. 1643.
                                                                                                    WILLIAM.              Whitney.                          1, 1673. The first Whit-                             MARY, b. 1600, d. 1600.
                                                                                                     (All died young.)                                      ney in America.                                      ROBERT, b. 1605, d. 1662.


            The Ancestry of John Whitney            217

down to the question whether the John Whitney
who lived at Isleworth and emigrated to Massachu-
setts was identical with the John Whitney, son of
Thomas and Mary, who was born at Westminster in
1592.
   The records of the Merchant Taylors Company,
Threadneedle street, London, establish such identity.
   Under date of February 22, 1607, it is recorded
that John Whitney, son of Thomas Whitney, of the
city of Westminster, yeoman, was apprenticed to
William Pring of the Old Bailey.
   March 13, 1614, John Whitney was made free by
William Pring, his master.
   Nov. 8, 1624, "Robert Whitney, son of Thomas Whit-
ney of the city of Westminster, Gentleman,1 was appren-
ticed to John Whitney in2               Thistleworth."
   The whole proof is here in a nutshell, for This-
tleworth" was just another spelling for Isleworth.
"Kelly's Directory of Middlesex" for 1894 says
"ISLEWORTH is a large parish on the left bank of the
Thames, 9 miles from London * * it is a place of con-
siderable antiquity, being mentioned in Domesday

   1 There was no inconsistency in describing the same man in one
place as a yeoman, and in another as a gentleman.  Both terms were
applicable to Thomas Whitney.  The former indicated the possession
of real property. "A yeoman is he that hath free land of (at least)
forty shillings by the year; who was anciently thereby qualified to
serve on juries, vote for knights of the shire and do any other act
where the law requires one that is probus et legalis homo." (1 Black-
stone's Commentaries," 406.) The latter indicated simply noble birth,
"one who bears or is entitled to a coat of arms" (Sir Edward Coke).
All the sons and grandsons of a knight were gentlemen. Strictly
speaking the term "esquire" was applicable only to "the oldest suns
of knights and their oldest sons in perpetual succession." (Camden).
It was commonly applied to any possessor of a landed estate, not a
knight, and to his heir apparent.
   2 Manuscript illegible.


218         The Ancestry of John Whitney

Book as Gistleworth. It was afterwards called Yhis-
telworth, Istelworth and, in Queen Elizabeth's reign
'Thistleworth,' but for the last two centuries it has
been spelled Isleworth."
   The record further shows that, January 14, 1632,
"Robert Whitney was made free by John Whitney
his master upon the report of his master."
   There never was but one John Whitney in the
Merchant Taylors Company, so it appears that John
Whitney, who was the son of Thomas Whitney of
Westminster, was the same John Whitney who lived
at Isleworth in 1624, and we know that John Whitney
who lived at Isleworth in 1624 was the John Whitney
who emigrated to Watertown, Massachusetts, from
the following entry of baptisms in the Isleworth
Register:

     1619, May 23, John Whitne, Ellen his wife, had their
     daughter Mary baptz.

     1621, September 14, John Whitne and Ellen his wife, had
     John their son baptized.

     1623, 4, January 6, John Whitne and Elinor his wife, had
     the(ir) sone Richard baptized.

   We now recall certain facts to which attention has
been directed in passing. The Robert Whitney, son
of Thomas, mentioned in the pedigrees, had a son
John, and now, seeing that this Robert was John the
emigrant's younger brother and also the emigrant's
apprentice, we recognize the appropriateness of his
selecting such designation for his first-born.  The
said Robert was a "Marchaunt Taylor" (see register
of burial), and we now see how he gained admittance
into the company.  Margaret Whitney, daughter of
Thomas of Westminster, died in Isleworth, and now

[Picture omitted]

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            219

we find her brother John located there.  What especial
attraction did this place possess?  The registers, per-
haps, answer the question.  Years ago Mr. Henry
Austin Whitney published the fact that at Isleworth,
as early as 1574, was located William Whitney, who
had, among his sons, a Nicholas, a William, and a
Robert. The pedigrees cited at the beginning of this
chapter show that Thomas of Westminster, son of
Robert, had older brothers, Nicholas and William.
   May it not have been that William Whitney of
Isleworth was the uncle of Margaret and John?
   The British Museum pedigrees, in the Harleian
Manuscripts, which mention the younger John, ne-
phew of the emigrant, in one case give his age
in 1676, which indicates the date of the compila-
tion, and in the other state that he claimed "to be
heir male of the whole family." If we recall that in
1670 the male line of the Whitneys of Whitney failed,
it is apparent that the two things have some connec-
tion. It may mean that young John claimed to be
heir to the property under the entail of Sir James,
1587, or perhaps nothing more than that he made
himself out the nearest male relative of Sir Thomas,
who had ended the line.
   Of the merit of the former contention it is difficult
to speak because in Sir James's settlement the rela-
tionship to him of most of the persons mentioned
is not stated; the latter, however, is capable of in-
vestigation.
   Sir James, who died without issue, had but two
brothers, Eustace and Robert.  Sir Thomas was
Eustace's last male descendant, and careful inquiry
shows nothing inconsistent with the theory that, in
1670, this John was the only male descendant of Rob-

220         The Ancestry of John Whitney

ert then living in England. This fact, however, did
not make him "heire male of the whole family," for
his uncle John of Watertown was one degree nearer
to Sir Thomas.  Probably the two Johns had no
knowledge of each other's existence, for the elder
emigrated three years before the younger was born,
and had then been in the New World thirty-five
years.
   Having thus shown that the emigrant was second
cousin of the last representative of his name at the
cradle of the race, and probably, after 1670 the he-
reditary head of the Whitney family, nothing is left
to complete this sketch but a brief summary of what
is known concerning him.
   John Whitney was the fifth child and third son of
Thomas Whitney, "gentleman," and Mary Bray, born
at Westminster and baptized in the parish church of
St. Margaret, July 20, 1592.
   While a boy he was well educated in the common
branches, probably at what was then known as "the
Westminster Grammar School," established by Queen
Elizabeth, situated close by and already in a flourish-
ing condition. The institution is now called St. Peter's
College.
   At the age of fourteen his father apprenticed him to
William Pring, of the Old Bailey, London,--a street
now leading by Newgate prison,--with whom he
served seven years. Pring was a "Freeman" in the
Merchant Taylors Company, of which, upon his at-
taining his majority in 1614, Whitney became a full-
fledged member.
   This may indicate that he engaged in the manu-
facture or tile purchase and sale of cloth, but such
conclusion need not be drawn from the name of the

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            221

body with which he was connected, any more than we
must necessarily infer that a man lays brick because
he belongs to the Order of Freemasons.
   Then, as now, the "corporation" of the city of
London proper was made up of a limited number of
"freemen," or "citizens," who chose from their num-
ber a certain number of aldermen, and the latter, in
turn, elected the Lord Mayor. The proportion to the
total of the adult male population the number of
"freemen" was small; for, to become one, membership
was necessary in one of certain peculiar organizations
called "companies," a thing hard to obtain, and, par-
ticularly that in the elder and richer ones, a distinc-
tion greatly valued.
   The one we have particularly mentioned, even in
its early days, was not as some have supposed, an or-
ganization of workmen. Its members were merchants,
and among the most prosperous that the city could
boast.
   The chartered "Livery Companies," so called from
the fact that their members had a distinctive dress
for festive and ceremonial occasions, grew out of the
medieval trade-guilds, which, in London, though sim-
ilar in some respects to those on the Continent, had
many peculiarities.
   With the familiar features of modern trade-unions
they combined others of a social, political, and re-
ligious character, and difficult for us at the present
day to understand which made them exceedingly
powerful.
   Though they had then already flourished for many
years, the earliest definite information we have of them
is about A. D. 1180. Then the most important one
was that of the "Weavers," who included in their ranks

222         The Ancestry of John Whitney

the whole clothing industry - tailors, drapers, haber-
dashers, fullers, shearmen, cloth-workers, and cloth-
sellers.  Henry II. granted them a charter which
changed the "guild" to a "company" and recog-
nized and confirmed the rights and privileges which
they had previously claimed and exercised. So great
was their prosperity that it led to their destruction.
The new company became so formidable that King
John suppressed it. Says Mr. Loftie,1 "This mean-
sure appears to have been absolutely necessary to the
well being of the City as the numbers, wealth and an-
tiquity of the weavers' Guild made it little less than a
rival to the governing body." They broke up into
sections,2 forming new guilds, of which the most
important were: 1. the "Weavers," 2. the "Cloth-
workers," and 3. the "Taylors and Linen Armorers";
all of which, in the course of time, obtained separate -
charters. The "Weavers," who were what would natu-
rally be understood from the name, never had much
strength; the "Cloth-workers," who included cloth-
ing manufacturers and tailors as the word is now
understood, were a large and vigorous body, but the
most important of all were the "Taylors and Linen
Armorers," for, though few in number, they were all
of them merchants, and many of them had great
wealth.
   Edward III. in 1327 granted to the new organiza-
tion last mentioned their first charter as "Taylors
and Linen Armorers of the City of London," and under

   1 "London," by W. J. Loftie (1892), p. 49.
   2 "The weavers had paid two marks of gold annually for leave to
hold their Guild, and the City authorities were willing to pay ten times
that sum for their abolition. They probably broke into sections of which
the tailors retained the ancient name, 'telaril,' though the clothworkers
probably included the greater number of members." Loftie, p.49.

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            223

it they continued a practical monopoly, already se-
cured, of certain lines of both foreign and domestic
trade in woolen and linen fabrics, and prospered
accordingly.
   As time went on the others we liars named, and si-
milar ones in other kinds of business, were chartered,
one after another, and, as they grew stronger, the
guilds grew weaker.  In 1557 the latter were abol-
ished by act of Parliament.
   As the result of a long struggle, the details of which
there is not room here to trace, by 1475 these com-
panics had secured complete control of the municipal
franchise, and were thus a governing oligarchy.1  No
one could have any voice in the management of public
affairs unless he first became a member of one of them.
   This marked the beginning of a gradual change
from their original character and purposes, for those
not connected with trades--professional men, mem-
bers of the nobility, and even the sovereign himself--
sought admission as a means of securing political
power.
   A "freeman," in his will and other public documents
relating to him, would almost always be described as
a "Merchant Taylor," or "Goldsmith," or "Skinner,"
according as he belonged to one or another of these
companies, but such description did not necessarily
mean that be was a cloth merchant, or a jeweler, or a
tanner; he might well be a literary man, a lawyer, or
a gentleman of leisure.2

   1 Loftie, p. 114.
   2 "In 1327, the year of the accession of Edward III, charters were
granted to three or the livery companies, namely, the Goldsmiths, the
Skinners and the Linen Armorours, otherwise called Merchant Taylors.
Although the companies are thus for the first time fully recognized by
the crown, the organization of the trades had been progressing steadily


224         The Ancestry of John Whitney

   The "Taylors" at an early date came to consider
their title a misnomer and took steps to change it.
Maitland, in his "History of London" (1756), tells
how it came about.  "Many of the members of the
company being great merchants and Henry VII a
member thereof, he, for his greater Honour, by Letters
Patent of the eighteenth of his Reign, Anno 1503
reincorporated the same by the name of the Masters
and Wardens of the Merchant Taylors of the Frater-
nity of St. John the Baptist of the City of London."1
   The exact form of the new name was "The Men of
the Art and Mistery2 of Merchant Taylors of the
Fraternity of St. John the Baptist."
   Maitland goes on to state that in his day "they
consist of a Master, four Wardens, thirty-eight assis-
tants and three hundred and ninety-four Livery men
whose fine is twenty Pounds when admitted.  To
whom belongs a spacious and stately Hall in Thread-

for many years and during the whole of the reign of Edward III the
practice of reading and approving regulations went on in the Guild
Hall. In 1303 thirty-two 'misteries' were recognized, most of which,
and many others besides eventually blossomed out into full blown com-
panies of the modern kind, having become wealthy enough to obtain
royal charters.  We find however few, if any traces of companies formed
for the purpose of carrying on trade.  The 'mistery' met for a different
purpose, and was composed of men who traded each on his own account."
Loftie, p. 113.
   1 "This yere (XIX of Henry VII) the taylours sewyd to the Kinge to
be called Merchant Taylours; whereupon a grete grudge rose among
dyvers craftys in the Cyte agaynst them."  "Arnold's Chronicle,"
p. xlii.
   2 "The livery companies with their political and municipal power, are
so far as I can ascertain peculiar to London. No other City has per-
mitted such a development of its misteries and trades; nowhere else
in England have chartered associations of the kind attained such wealth
and power. The very word 'mistery,' often misspelled mystery, implies
skilled knowledge or 'mastery' of a branch or industrial art.  This mis-
tery was nowhere else more fully acknowledged and respected."  Loftie,
p. 186.


            The Ancestry of John Whitney            225

needle Street to treat the business of the Company
in.  They are possessed of a great Estate."
   Admission was secured only on vote of the com-
pany, and payment of the "fine," and, in the ordinary
case, the candidate must have been an "apprentice"
to a member for at least seven years.
   In the century that elapsed between the reincor-
poration and John Whitney's admission, the char-
acteristics of the Merchant Taylors became less
and less commercial and more and more social and
political.  They established a school and made it
one of the best in England.1 They founded chari-
ties which still flourish, and in many ways were a
powerful influence for the advancement of civiliza-
tion.2  In his day they were easily the leading livery
company.
   We can obtain some idea of its position from an ac-
count of an event that took place the year that he
was apprenticed, recorded at page 352 in "A Survey

   1 In 1555 Sir Thomas White, a past master of the Merchant Taylors'
Company, founded St John's College, Oxford.  In 1561 White, Rich-
ard Hilles the then master, Sir William Harpur, and other promi-
nent Taylors making at the same time liberal private contributions,
induced their company to endow a school in London "for the better
education and bringing up of children in good manners and liter-
ature," providing that it "should have continuance by God's grace for-
ever."  Prior to that, the only public schools of any merit were St. Paul's,
founded by Colet for 153 boys, and Westminster, founded by Queen
Elizabeth, for 120.  The Merchant Taylors offered room from the first
for 250, and gave 100 free scholarships.
   Edmund Spenser, the poet author of the Faerie Queene, was one of
the first pupils.  Among the graduates have been many distinguished
in the professions, including no less than four archbishops and twenty-
nine bishops. An interesting account of the school appeared in the
"Illustrated London News" for September 28, 1895.
   2 The charities of the company now amount to over a quarter of a
million dollars a year.


226         The Ancestry of John Whitney

of the Cities of London and Westminster," by Robert
Seymoure, published in 1735, as follows:

   July 16, 1607, the day of Election of Masters and Wardens
of the Merchant-Taylors Company, that used to be kept with
great Solemnity and Feasting, King James I, with Prince
Henry and divers Honourable Personages, dined at Mer-
chant-Taylors Hall, and were entertained with great Variety
of Musick, Vocal and Instrumental, and Speeches.  The King
dined in the Chamber called the King's Chamber.  Then the
Master of the Company, John Swinnerton, attending with the
four Wardens, and other eminent Aldermen and Citizens, after
a Speech congratulatory made to him by Sir Henry Montague,
Recorder, presented him with a Purse of Gold:  And Richard
Langley, Clerk of the Company, deliver'd unto his Majesty
a Roll, wherein were enter'd the Names of such Kings and
Nobles, and other great Persons that had been Free of their
Company, Viz: Seven Kings, one Queen, seventeen Princes
and Dukes, two Dutchesses, one Archbishop, thirty-one
Earls, five Countesses, one Viscount, twenty-four Bishops,
sixty six Barons and Lords. two Ladies, seven Abbots, seven
Priests, and one Sub-prior, omitting a number of Knights,
Esquires, &c.  The King then said, that he was Free of an-
other Company, yet he would so much grace the Company
of Merchant-Taylors, that his eldest Son the Prince should
be Free thereof; and that he would see and be a Witness,
when the Garland should be put upon his Head.  And then
they resorted unto the Prince, who dined in the Great Hall;
and the Company presented him with another Purse full of
gold; and the Clerk deliver'd his Roll.  And his Highness
said, That not only himself would be Free of the Company,
but many other of his Lords, and commanded one of his
Gentlemen and the Clerk of the Company, to go to all the
Lords present, and to require them that loved him, and
were not Free of other Companies, to be Free of his Com-
pany:  And so were accordingly made Free twenty-two
Earls and Lords, amid a great many other Knights and Es-

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            227

quires; and of the Clergy, Dr. Montague, Dean of the
Chapel, and Adam Newton, Dean of Durham, and the
Prince's Tutor, and three Noblemen of the Low-Countries,
Ambassadors to the King; Viz : John Berke, Lord in Gods-
chalk Court, Counsellor of Dort; Sir John de Maldere, Knt.
Lord of Heyes, &c. and Chancellor of Zealand; Sir Noel de
Caron, Knt. Lord of Schoonwel, &c. Ambassador Ledger
from the States.  The Names of the English Nobles, that
had their Freedoms of this Company granted them at this
Time, were, the Duke of Lenox, the Earl of Nottingham,
Lord Admiral; the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain; the
Earl of Salisbury, Principal Secretary to the King; and
several other Knights and Gentlemen, Scotch and English.
   There have been about 18 Lord Mayors of this Company."1

   When, therefore, Thomas Whitney thus apprenticed
young John, his eldest surviving son, he gave him a
good start in life and the best advantages his means
afforded.  A heavy premium, probably, had to be paid
to his master in 1607, and another one to the company,
when in 1614 the boy, at the age of twenty-one, was
made "free."
   Though we cannot be certain that Mr. Pring was
a cloth merchant, such was quite likely the case.
There is little doubt that he was a merchant of some
kind, and if so, he was of high standing in the com-
munity or he could not have belonged to the Mer-
chant Taylors Company.
   The apprentice did not "learn a trade," as we now
understand the expression, but rather "served a clerk-
ship" in the office of a large commercial house, where
be learned to be a skillful penman and neat and ac-

   1 It is to-day one of the so-called "Great Companies," with its Hall
still in Threadneedle street.


228         The Ancestry of John Whitney

curate accountant, of which we shall hereafter see so
many evidences in the Watertown records.
   Soon after starting in business for himself, Whit-
ney married.  The Christian name of his wife was
Elinor, but most diligent search, exhausting, as is
believed, all sources of information in or near Lon-
don, has failed to disclose her surname. Probably, as
in the case of his younger brother Robert, who, ac-
cording to the Harleian pedigrees, went to the west
of England for a bride, the marriage ceremony was
performed in some remote locality.
   Locating in Isleworth, he had born to him, as al-
ready noted, Mary, in 1619 (named for her grand-
mother), John, in 1621, and Richard, in 1623-24.
There, later, in 1624, his brother Robert was appren-
ticed to him, and soon after he moved away.  Mary
must have died before the embarkation, for she did
not accompany her parents to America . She may be
referred to in the following record of a burial in the
parish of St. Mary Aldermary, London:

   1626, Feb. 15, Mary, a child of John Whitney

   That this is so is rendered more probable by the
fact that, among the baptisms of that parish, is

   1627, Dec. 10, Thomas, sonn of John Whitne dwelling in
Bowe lanne.

   The emigrant had a son Thomas who must have
been born about this time. If he is thus located it
indicates that the removal from Isleworth to "Bowe
lanne" was not direct, for a Nathaniel is unaccounted
for who, in age, came between Richard and Thomas.
   Bow Lane can still be seen, a short street leading

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            229

from St. Mary Aldermary to Bow Church, where
bang the famous bells.
   In 1632, according to the records of the Merchant
Taylors, John Whitney filed the proper certificate
to gain for Robert admission into the company, and
prior to that, in September, 1631, he placed his eldest
son, John, Jr., then a boy of ten, in the Merchant
Taylors School, then the best educational institution
in London, and still one of great distinction. The
name appears in each annual catalogue till 1635,
when the family started, in the little ship "Elizabeth
and Ann," for their voyage to the far-away shores of
New England.
   Jonathan was born about 1633, and it is possible
that during this period of several years, when we do
not know John's residence, he had one or two other
children, who died in infancy.
   The causes that led him to leave forever his na-
tive land are familiar history. The great Puritan
emigration in which he joined was a natural result
of the spirit of the age which had already caused the
"Reformation," and then was developing into a
struggle for a growth of civil and religious liberty
under the British Constitution,--a struggle that in
1685 seemed hopeless.
   From 1629 till 1640 no parliament assembled in
England, and every previously prevailing theory of
right and justice was violated. Taxes were assessed
without legislative sanction, and without regard to
custom or equality.  Monopolies of trade in the
necessities of life were granted to royal favorites.
Knighthood--before an honor--was forced upon
every man of means for the sake of the fees thereby
secured. "Forced loans" from the common people

230         The Ancestry of John Whitney

were the order of the day.  Men had to pay for or-
dinary personal liberty, protection of property, and
the privilege of earning their daily bread.  By the
King's proclamation country people were forbidden
to enter London; all the shops on Cheapside, except
the goldsmiths', were closed; the building of more
houses was prohibited unless--and the rule was gen-
eral--special leave was purchased.  Then came the
famous ship money, the inquisitional Court of High
Commission, and a persecution of the Puritans that
recalled Queen Mary's bloody reign.
   The Star Chamber was allowed to reduce a wealthy
gentleman to poverty for merely sneering at the
badge of a nobleman, and to sentence a clergyman
to whipping, mutilation, and perpetual imprison-
ment for expressing an unfavorable opinion of cer-
tain bishops whose characters were worthy only of
detestation.
   The majority of those who first settled Massachu-
setts came there simply because the condition of
affairs in the land of their ancestors had become
unendurable.1
   To one of the prevailing schemes for raising un-
authorized revenues, perhaps, we are indebted for
our knowledge of the exact time of the emigration.
License to leave the kingdom had to be purchased,
and in the Record Office a document containing the
following is still on file:

   1 "The bulk of the country party abandoned all hope of English
freedom.  There was a sudden revival of the emigration to New Eng-
land, and men of blood and fortune now prepared to seek a home in
the west.  Oliver Cromwell is said by a doubtful tradition to have
been prevented from crossing the seas by a royal embargo.  It is more
certain that John Hampden purchased a tract of land on the Narra-
gansett."--Green's "History of the English People."


            The Ancestry of John Whitney            231

                 9-10 Charles I., (1635)
   A Register of the names of all the Passengers
passed from the port of London in this year,
          *      *      *      *      *      *
                    xiij Aprilis 1635.
          *      *      *      *      *      *
p. 24
   In the Elizabeth & Ann Roger Coop, Mr. Theis pties
hereunder expressed are to be imbarqued for New England
having taken the oaths of Allegeance & Supremacie & like-
wise brought Certificate both from the Ministers & Justices
where their abidings were latlie of their conformitie to the
discipline & orders of the Church of England & yt they are
no Subsedy men.1

Husb. Robert Hawkynns ...... 25  Wm. Hubbard ................ 35
Jo: Whitney ................ 35  Tho: Hubbard ............... 10
Jo: Palmerley .............. 20  Tho: Eaton .................  1
Richard Martin ............. 12  Maria Hawkynns ............. 24
Jo: Whitney ................ 11  Ellin Whitney .............. 30
Richard Whitney ............  9  Abigail Eaton .............. 35
Nathaniell Whitney .........  8  Sara Cartrack .............. 24
Tho. Whitney ...............  6  Jane Damand ................  9
Jonathan Whitney ...........  1  Mary Eaton .................  4
Nic Sension ................ 13  Marie Broomer .............. 10
Henry Jackson .............. 29  Mildred Cartrack ...........  2
                                 Joseph Alsopp .............. 14
p 24d
                        15th Aprill 1635.

   In the Eliza: & Anne de Lon' mr Roger Cooper v' New
England,

      Percy Kinge 24 yers a maid servant to mr Ro: Crowley.

  1 See "The Original Lists of Persons of Quality * * *who went from
Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700."  Edited by
John Camden Hotten, 1874.


232         The Ancestry of John Whitney

                        27 Aprilis 1635.

   Theis under written names are to be transported to New
England, Roger Cooper Mr, bound thither in the Elizabeth
& Ann, the pties have brought Certificate from the Minister
at Westminster & the Justices of the Peace of his Confor-
mitie the ptie hath taken the oaths of Alleg: & Suprem:

   a carpenter, Richard Brocke, 31  Daniell Preston, ............. 13
                Edward Sall     24
p. 31d
                   29 Aprilis 1635,
   Theis under written names are to be transported to New
England imbarqued in the Elizabeth & Ann Roger Coop
Mr the ptie have brought Certificate from the Minster of
the pish & Justices of Peace of their Conformitie to thor-
ders & Discipline of the Church of England & yt they are
no Subsedy men,

Rich. Goard .................. 17  Joseph Faber ................ 26
a smith, Tho. Lord ........... 50  Tho. Pound .................. 21
uxor Dorothy ................. 40  Robert Lord .................  9
Thomas Lord .................. 16  Aymie Lord ..................  6
Ann Lord ..................... 14  Dorothy Lord ................  4
Wm. Lord ..................... 12  Josias Cobbett .............. 21
John Lord .................... 10  Jo: Halloway ................ 21
James Cobbett ................ 23  Jane Bonnet ................. 16
                                   Wm. Reeve ................... 22

p. 32
                  oedem 29 Aprilis 1635
a Taylor Christopher Stanley  32
         uxor Suzanna         31
         Wm. Samond           19

   It is to be noted that Whitney made his arrange-
ments more than two weeks before the vessel sailed,
which indicates that be was still living in or near
London--and also that some of his fellow passen-

         The Ancestry of John Whitney      233

gers were from "Westminster," and therefore quite
likely acquaintances.
   It is also to be noted that the ages given were in-
correct.  The eldest son, John, born at Isleworth in
1621, then fourteen, is put down as eleven. His
brother Richard, born at Isleworth in 1624, then
eleven, is put down as nine. Elinor, who, according
to the record in the first church at Watertown, was
sixty when she died in 1659, must have been thirty-
six instead of thirty, and JOHN himself, born in 1592,
was forty-three instead of thirty-five.
   The fact that all are given too young, and the
regularity of the scaling down, has suggested, in
the minds of some, that the misstatement was inten-
tional; but the advantage of falsification is not ap-
parent, unless, under the regulations, there was some-
thing to, be gained by having all the children under
fourteen.
   Mr. Henry Austin Whitney, referring to the sub-
ject, says: "That these lists were not always exact,
and indeed were often purposely incorrect, we have
many examples; and, in this instance, the ages were
doubtless given too young through design, either to
avoid some clause in the Subsidy Act or some of the
many embarrassments thrown in the way of emi-
grants."  To the writer, however, it seems more
probable that the recording of ages, which must have
been solely for identification, was deemed a formality
of little importance, and the clerk who made the me-
morandum guessed at them from observation with-
out troubling himself to ask questions.  That this
whole matter was carelessly attended to appears on
the face of the record.
   It is evident that Mr. Whitney had not prior to

234         The Ancestry of John Whitney

embarkation, publicly cut loose from the Church of
England. This is not surprising, in view of the fact
that a nonconformist could not depend on protection
of either property or life.
   The same oppression that drove out the Puritans
from 1630 to 1640, a few years later, led to a popular
uprising that plunged the country into civil war and
cost the King his head.
   The vessel did not sail till some time in May, which,
allowing for a prosperous voyage, would bring it
Boston Harbor about the first of July.  Pushing on
from there, the emigrant went a few miles up the
Charles and settled at Watertown, within the limits
of the present village, on high land, afterward, in
consequence, called "Whitney Hill."
   This locality had been known by the Indians as
"Pequusset" and was one of their favorite camping-
grounds. When Governor Winthrop came over in
1630, with a large company of new settlers, Sir
Richard Saltonstall, Rev. George Phillips, and a few
families left the main body at Charlestown and went
a few  miles up the river and located farms upon its
banks.  Their settlement was at first known as
"Saltonstall's Plantations," but after a few years it
was formally named Watertown from its natural
characteristics. The first houses were built east of
Mt. Auburn Cemetery, toward Cambridge, on the
spot where antiquarians think the Norsemen landed,
long before the time of Columbus.
   With John and Elinor Whitney in 1635 came a
comparatively large reinforcement of stalwart men
and devoted women, who soon made the town as
prosperous as any in New England. As Drake in
his history of it well says:

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            235

   "Some of these emigrants were from the West of
England, but the greater number came from London
and its vicinity. They were Puritan Non-Conformists
who, self-exiled from their native land, sought on an
unknown shore that liberty of religious worship which
had been denied them at home. They came to stay
and their familiarity with husbandry or some useful
handicraft, assured the permanency of their settle-
ment. A nobler body of men or one better equipped
physically and morally for the conquest of a wilder-
ness and the founding of a new state, the world has
never seen."
   They were of as high a class as any that ever
came to New England, and in intelligence and social
standing far superior to most of them  Some, had
been men of property and position at home, and had
no reason for emigration beyond the intolerance of
their religious belief.1  Though Puritans in sympathy,
they wore not of the narrow, bigoted sort, and their

   1 "Nor were the emigrants like the earlier colonists of the South,
broken men, adventurers, bankrupts, criminals; or simply poor men
and artisans like the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower. They were in
great part men of the professional and middle classes; some of them
men of large landed estates, some zealous clergymen like Cotton,
Hooker and Roger Williams, some shrewd London lawyers, or young
scholars from Oxford. The bulk were God-fearing farmers from Lin-
colnshire or the Eastern counties. They desired in fact 'Only the best
as sharers in their enterprise,' men drawn forth from their fatherland
not by earthly want, or by the greed of gold, or by the lust of adventure,
but by the fear of God, and the zeal for a godly worship.  But strong
as was their zeal, it was not without a wrench that they tore themselves
from their English homes. 'Farewell,  dear England!' was the cry that
burst from the first little company of emigrants as its shores faded from
their sight.  'Our hearts,' wrote Winthrop's followers to the brethren
whom they had left behind, 'shall be fountains of tears for your ever-
lasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilder-
ness.'" Green's "History of the English People."


236         The Ancestry of John Whitney

history is free from the blots now so much regretted
in that of Salem and Boston.
   On March 8, 1636, by vote of the General Court of
the colony, John Whitney was admitted a "free-
man." Only church members and persons of high
character and standing in the community could have
this honor. Many settlers were never admitted. None
but "freemen," however, were allowed to hold office
or "vote for rulers."
   Upon the first page of the Town Records, which be-
gan in 1634, is this:

   January 8, 1635. Agreed that no man being foreigner
coming out of England, or some other Plantation, shall
have liberty to sett downe amongst vs vnless he first have
ye Consent of ye Freemen of the Towne.

And a little later this, under date of December 13,
1635:

   Agreed by the Consent of the Freemen (in consideration
there be too many Inhabitants in the Towne and the Towne
thereby in danger to be ruinated) that no Foreigner comming
into the Towne or any Family arising among ourselves shall
have any benefitt either of Commonage or land vndivided
but what they shall purchase except that they buy a man's
right wholly in ye Towne.

   Under date of July 15, 1636, there is the first list of
inhabitants in connection with a division among them
of certain land. It is entitled "A Grant of the Great
Dividends to the freemen and to all the townsmen
then inhabiting, being 120 in number." Among these
names we find those of many of the progenitors of
the most distinguished American families. For ex-
ample: "Adams, Bartlett, Bigelow, Browne, Brooks,

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            237
   
Clarke, Coolidge, Dix, Dwight, Garfield, Hitchcock,
Kimball, Lawrence,  Philipps, Paine, Pendleton,
Shaw, Sherman, and Saltonstall."
   On this occasion Whitney secured 50 acres. He had
previously purchased a homestead of 16 acres, of
which Henry Austin Whitney has this account:

   He purchased a 16-acre homestead, which had been
granted to John Strickland, who was dismissed from the
Watertown Church May 29, 1636, and was one of that
colony from Watertown that went and planted Wethers-
field, the oldest town on the Connecticut River. This home-
stead was the permanent residence of Mr. Whitney. In
1668 he requested his youngest son Benjamin, who had
settled in York, Maine, to return and live with him on the
homestead with the assurance that it should be his own
after his father's decease.  In 1671, Benjamin, with his
father's consent, conveyed his right and obligation in the
homestead to his brother Joshua1, who had settled in Gro-
ton, for £40. After the decease of his father Joshua re-
turned to Groton and on the 20th of October, 1697, sold the
ancient homestead to Deacon Nathan Fiske.

   He also purchased outright from another earlier
settler a farm of one hundred and twenty acres. This
is one of the largest tracts of land mentioned in the
early records, for, situated in the primeval wilderness,
it was a great undertaking to enclose arid improve
even one acre.
   About 1640 there was made up the first "Inventory
of Grants and Possessions," in which, at page 50, is the
following:

                "JOHN WHITNEY SEN.

   1. An Homestall of Sixteen Acres bounded the East with
William Jennison the west with Martin Underwood the

   1 Born in America.


238         The Ancestry of John Whitney

North with Isaac Mixer & the South with William Jen-
nison.
   2. Two acres of Meddow in Beverbrook Meddow bounded
the west with William Jennison & the South with the
Brook.
   3. Fifty acres of vpland being a great Divident in the 3
Division and the 16 Lott.
   4. A Farme of One Hundred and twenty Acres vpland
bounded the North with the Highway the East with Edward
How & the west with Abram Browne.
   5. Ten    acres of Meddow in the remote Meddowes bounded
the North with the highway the South with, his owne the
East with Edward How & Garret Church.
   6. Ten acres of Plowland in the hither Plaine and the 1
Lott.
   7. One Acre of Meddow in Pond Meddow bounded the
west with Isaac Sterne the South with John Stowers the
East with the highway.
   8. One Acre of Meddow bounded the west with Martin
Vnderwood & the East with Lawrence Waters.
   9. Eighteen Acres of upland beyond the farther Plaine
& the 45 Lott."

   This made him one of the largest holders of real 
estate in Watertown. Out of that mentioned, and
subsequent acquisitions, he, during his lifetime, made
generous provision for his large family of sons.
   The location of "Whitney Hill," where he lived, is
a matter of dispute. Without much doubt it was
either where the stand-pipe of the water works is
now erected, north of Mt. Auburn street, near Pal-
frey street, or the hill a little distance away crossed
by Lexington street.
   His broad acres indicate that, as compared with
his neighbors, he was in comfortable circumstances.
That he was held in the highest esteem by them is

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            239

shown by the fact that they admitted him, as a "free-
man" immediately on his arrival, and, in 1637, only
two years after, elected him "selectman" and by re-
elections continued him in office for several terms.
   Henry Austin Whitney states that he was contin-
ually in office from 1637 to 1655. This is probably a
mistake. At the top of the sixth page of the Town
Records is this entry:

   Decembr. 30, 1637. These 11 Freemen Chosen to Order
the civill affaires of ye Town for this yeare to come:
Thomas Mayhew, Daniel Pattrick, John Whitney, Edmund
James, John Firmin, John Stowers, Abram Browne, Ed-
mund Lewis, Edward Garfield, Ephraim Child, Simon Eire.

   From 1643 to 1647 the records of the town are en-
tirely lost.  The first entry when they begin again is
this, top of page 31:

          At a Generall Towne Meeting the
               8    (9)  1647
ordered that John Sherman shall goe to the Courte to an-
swer the complaynt of Robert Saltonstall.
   To order the prudentiall affayers of the Towne, Mr.
Brisco: Joseph Bemis.. Willyam Hamant: John Sherman:
John Whetny Sr.: Left Mason: Roger Porter: weare Chossen.

Page 33:
   At a Mettinge of the seauen men
at Mr. Whettnys the 30th      (9)          1647.
The list of all estates beinge taken in, by the seauen men,
and the Comissioner: (before chosen) the town chose John
Sherman to Drawe up the Rate for ye counstables to gather
by: and also to send a list to the Treasurer, or the just
sume of the whole estates of the Towne, &c.

240         The Ancestry of John Whitney

Pages 71, 72:
   the 30 of January 1647 at a publike Towne-meeting   *
*        *        *        *        *        Mr. Whetney
is chosen to take the Inuoyce for the towne, &c.

   This "taking the invoice" seems to have been
figuring out the amount of tax payable by each
owner of property.  It was a matter which Mr.
Whitney attended to for many year's thereafter. He
also appears to have been selected, on almost every
occasion when such work was to be done, to audit
the accounts of the other town officers. Very likely
his business experience in England made him the
best qualified for such work of any man in the set-
tlement.
   There are incidental references to him on nearly
every page which show that he was constantly ac-
tive and in a variety of matters--for example,

Page 80:
   At a generall Towne Meetinge the 10 day--10 month
1649   *       *       *       *   Granted to Tho. Arnall a Smalle patch
of land neere his house abought six Rod: so as it prejudice
not the highway: to be sett out by John Whetny, Seir.

Page 84:
   At a meeting by the whole Towne the 16th of the (10)
1650   *      *     *   Simont Stone, Ephraime Child, Thomas
Hastings, Charles Chadwick, Samuel Thacher, Isaac Mexter,
John Wittney were Chosen for the ordering of the towne
affayres for the yeare following the psent date.

[Picture omitted]

                 PAGE OF WATERTOWN RECORDS.
            Written by John Whitney, Town Clerk.

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            241

Pages 50, 51:
         At a generall towne metting Desember
                       the 4th, 54.
Voated that they will chose the selectmen for the yeer in-
sueing. Chossen to order the affaier of the town for this
yeer these men whose names are vndder written:
   Deaken Stone, Mr. Whitney, Edward Garfield, Isaac
Mixer, Samuell Thatcher, Nathaniell Treadway John
Winkall:
      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

            At a meting of the select men the
                      29 of the 11
   Ordered that John Whitney is tew Joyn with John Win-
coll and tew act in & tew dispose of parte of the goodes
and estate of the widow Brobroke for the painge of severall
Debtes and for mayntinans of hur and hur Children and the
are tew let hur house and land and are tew inquier after
hure Detes and to reseve them as shall bee fonnd due tew
hur and tew make returne tew the rest of the select men.
   It was agreed upon that John Whitney sener is tew take
the Acounte of the rate that was Comited in tow the hands
of Mr. Norcrose and Thomas Vndrwood.
   Granted unto Gorge Ademes fower akers of ground upon
Kinges Comen and is tow bee layd out by Ensine Sherman.
   Granted at apublike meeting that Deaken Stone and
Samuell Thacher shall laye out for tew by goodman Leson
Clothes for his nesety the some or ether forty or fifty
shillings.
   Ordered that John Whitney sener shall take an acount of
the Cunstabeles Thomas Underwood and [                 ]

   Pages 53 and 54, written by Whitney as town
clerk, show that he was a better penman than any
of the first ten holders of that office, except John
Sherman, and in composition and spelling was cer-
tainly equal to the best of them. If handwriting

242         The Ancestry of John Whitney

contains any indication of character we also justified
in assuming that he was a man who at some time in
his life had been carefully taught and who then, at
the age of sixty-three, was in excellent physical and
mental condition.
   A photograph of page 53 is shown, which reads, in
part, as follows:

   At ameeting of the select men at John Whitney1 house
the 27 of 12, 1654.
   Ordered that all swine shall bee sufficiently ringed all the
yeare and yoaked from the first of Aprill to the end of In-
dian harvest with sufficient yoakes vnder the throat upon
ye penalty of payinge one shilling for every defect the one
halfe to the towne & the other halfe to him or them that
shall find any swine not according to this order either in
common or high way and if any swine not regulated ac-
cording to this order shall brake Into any garden or corne
feild then the owners of the said swine shall shutt them up
             for 14 dayes and not suffer them to come in
Shutting up  to common or high way til the 14 dayes be ex-
repealed.    pired vpon penalty of paying 12d for euery
             default to the use of the aforesaid.
   William Page and Anthony White are Chosen to prose-
cute orders concerning swine and fenses &c.

   On page 54 there is an agreement drawn up and
signed by him in a manner that would do credit to a
practising attorney. A facsimile of it is shown in the
printed edition of the "Watertown Records," pub-
lished in 1894:

   At a meeting of the select men at Leiut. Beres on the
first Day of October 1655.
   It was agreed betwixt the select men of the one party &

   1 This may be the signature to minutes of previous meeting.


            The Ancestry of John Whitney            243

Christopher Grant of the other ptie that the said select men
in the behalfe of the towne shall giue vnto the said Chris-
topher Grant assureance of six acres of land formerly sold
by the select men to the said Christopher & shall pay also
vnto the said Christopher or his assaynes twentie shillings
in wheate & one & fortie shillings & six pense more out of
the next towns rates: all which payments the said Christo-
pher shall take in full satisfaction of all Debts dues & De-
mands whatsoeuer from the towne of Watertowne from the
beginning of the world to this present: in witnesse whereof
both parties haue Interchangably set to their hands the Day
& yeare aboue written.
Christopher x Grant                   JOHN WHITNEY.
        his marke

   A photograph is given of a petition relative to
lands in Watertown, now among the Archives in
the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth,
which also contains a good specimen of Whitney's
signature.
   Owing to the loss of some pages of the first book
of Town Records and the mutilation of others, it is
impossible to say with certainty how many terms he
served as a town officer--often enough to show con-
clusively that he was one of Watertown's most re-
spected citizens.  There was no political position
of greater honor. The "selectmen" were then what
their name would suggest,--the pick of the freemen,
administering all the town's affairs.
   There were some curious enactments which they
were expected to enforce. For example, one affixing
a penalty upon whoever "should suffer his dog to
come to the Meeting upon the Lord's Day."
   In this connection the following entry in the rec-
ords, made in 1664, is interesting:

244         The Ancestry of John Whitney

   14/1/64. Thomas Whitney was chosen to take care that
no dogs come into the Meeting house upon the Sabath days
or other times of Publique worship; by whipping them out
of the house: or any that bee near to the house at such
times: and to have for his paines and care thirty shillings
pr yeare.
   Att a Meeting of the Select Men at John Hamonds the
28/1/1664. Ordered that Thomas Whetney in regard of
his present necessity shall have the one half of his sallery
paid him in hand.

   This "Thomas" was John Whitney's fourth son.
   In addition to their regular duties it was provided
that the "selectmen" should take turns "every man
his day to site upon the gallery to look to the youths
that they may prevent miscarriages in the time of
public services on the Lords Day."
   The community had no objection to a man's dress-
ing handsomely if he could afford it, but disliked dis-
play or foppishness. They shrewdly turned the love
of display of some impecunious individuals to public
advantage, by providing that they should be rated
for taxation in accordance with their apparent wealth.
The "selectmen," were directed "to take notice of
sundry persons in this towne who are in their habits
contrary to the law concerning the excess of appa-
rell," and to see that none "except such as the law
doth allow do either wear silke goods or silke scarfes,
gould or silver lace or buttons, ribbons at knees or
trassed handkerchiefs, upon the forfeiture of what
penalty the law doth apoynt which is that they shall
be rated in the country rate after £200 in the same."
   The following was the provision for a school:

   Att a generall Towne Meeting upon ye 6th of the 11th
month (50)

[Picture omitted]

          PETITION AS TO LANDS IN WATERTOWN.
          Showing signature of John Whitney.

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            245

   It was voted and agreed upon that Mr. Rich: Norcrosse
was chosen School Master for the teaching of children to
read and write and soe much Lattin according to an order
of Courtt, as also if any of the Sd Towne have any maidens
that haue a desire to learne to write that the Sd Richard
should attend them for the learning off them as also that
he teach Such as desir to cast accompt and that the Towne
did promise to allow the Sd Richard for his employment
thirty pounds for this yeare.

   In June, 1641, the "Quarter Court" of the colony
commissioned Whitney "Constable of Watertown."
This office, which to held for many years, was one
of much dignity.  Henry Austin Whitney thus
speaks of it:
   "At that time constables were appointed by the
General Court, and, besides the duties attached to
the office in latter times, they were required to col-
lect the taxes of the town and the levies made by the
General Court; to pay the debts of the Colony due
to individuals in their respective towns; to supply
the town with sealed weights and measures; to set
in order the watch in those towns where no captain
dwelt; and to inflict the punishments ordered by
judicial authority when there was not another ap-
pointed to do it. As a badge of his office, a constable
was required to carry a black staff five or five and
one-half feet long with a top or head five or six
inches long."
   He continued constable up to 1656, and probably
longer. This entry is on the record:

   Dece. the 9th 1656 Reced from the County Treasurer
warrant for a rate of fifty fiue pounds thirteen shillings
three pence halfe peny £55 13s, 3 1/2d.

246         The Ancestry of John Whitney

   Deliuered at the same time into the hands of Mr. Whittney
Constable, a rate signed vnder the hand of the townes Clarke
somed vp and amounted to fifty-seven pounds £57.

In 1658 this appears:

   Att a publique Towne meeting the 10th January 1658.
Eph. Child chosen moderator.
                                         £   s.
     dew to Mr. Whittney for 2 Invoyces . . . 1 - 5 - 0
     dew to Mr. Whittney for 7 foxes    . . .   0 - 7 - 0

   There was a bounty of one shilling for every fox  
killed, and he collected similar bills on several other
occasions.
   There is a suggestion in the following that he con-
tinued in public office until, through old age--he was
then in his seventy-second year--his powers began
to fail:

   Att a meeting of the Select men at Seargeant Brights the
8th of the 12 mo. 1663:
   Mr. Whittney making sum mistakes in Castinge the in-
voyce whereby sum wrong is done in seuerall rates it is
Ordered that Joseph Tainter and Nathaniell Treadway
shall revue the invoyce and what they find not to be right
cast up thay are to cast it up right and amend it on the rates

   It is noticeable how often he is referred to as
"Mr. Whitney"1. This title was then comparatively
seldom used and always with fine discrimination.
None but the most highly respected citizens were
considered entitled to it.
   Seven instances of its application to him have al-
ready been noted.  Here are some of the others:

   1 His father is given the same title in the Westminster Records (see
his burial).


            The Ancestry of John Whitney            247

Page 45.

   At a meeting of the Select men the 8/ 4/ 1654
   Robert Geneson and John Knapp Complaining that Ro-
bert Daniell that hee Did not fence his portion within their  
field--
   It Did appeare by testymony of Mr. Whitny, and his own
Confession, that all his Land was by his owne act in agen-
erall feild with them and hee Could not make it appeare
that he hath taken himsefe orderly out. The sentance of
the Select men is that wher as it Dooth apeere that Robert
Daniel hath apassell of Land within their field Containing
8 or 10 akers mor or Less, that he shal fence for it by
equall portion with the use of the Commoners.

Page 56:
                    Credits given the last yeare.
                                              £   s   d
In pri Edward Garfeild . . . . . . . . . . .  1   7   6
   John Wincoll  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1   7   6
   Widow Mixter  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1   0   0
   Mr. Whittney  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1   0   3
   Nath Treadaway  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8   3   0
   Thomas Vnderwood  . . . . . . . . . . . .  1  12   8
   Mr. Norcrosse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10   9   3
   Winter  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0  12   0
   Edmond Bloyse . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2  10   0
   To John Randoll for foxes . . . . . . . .  0   2   0
   Charles Chadwick  . . . . . . . . . . . .  1   5   0
   Mr. Browne for beeing Deputie . . . . . .  2   8   0
   To John Winckoll  . . . . . . . . . . . .  3   0   0
   Parks 2 foxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  O   2   0
   Bush 1 fore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   Fle 1 foxe  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   Sttratton 1 Day worke . . . . . . . . . .  0   2   0
   Bright to widow Brabrooke . . . . . . . .  0   3   0
   Thacher for Mr. Feake . . . . . . . . . .  4  10   0

248         The Ancestry of John Whitney

                                              £   s   d
   for Phillpott . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3   0   0
   For Beech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5   0   0
   Christopher Grant . . . . . . . . . . . .  0  12   6
                                             ----------
                                             48   8   8

Page 66:

Creditor to the town
                                              £   s   d
   Cha: Chadwick . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1  10   0
   Will Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      5   2
   Mr. Whittney for taking the townse
       invoyce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     10
       for 3 foxes . . . . . . . . . . . . .      3
   John Stone 1 foxe . . . . . . . . . . . .      1
   Thomas Fleg 1 foxe  . . . . . . . . . . .      1
   Rich. Child 3 foxes . . . . . . . . . . .      3
         & 1 fox more  . . . . . . . . . . .     &1
   Joshua Fassum 1 foxe  . . . . . . . . . .      1
   John Witherall under the hands of John
       Hamond Constable for 8 foxes  . . . .      8
   more John Witherall 8 foxes . . . . . . .      8
   John Bisko Constable brings in
       Thomas Smith for 6 foxes  . . . . . .      6
   Rich: Sawtell 2 foxes . . . . . . . . . .      2
   John Winter 2 foxes . . . . . . . . . . .      2
   Chri: Grant 1 foxe  . . . . . . . . . . .      1
   more for the caring of things concerning Mary
       Davise her child to Garett Church . .      3   8
   for the widow Brabroke to Bro. Bearsto  .     10   6
   more for widow Brabroke to him  . . . . .  1   8   0
   Seargt. Bloyse for the pound  . . . . . .  5   0   0
   Mr. Norcrosse creditor to the 13th of Jan 13  02   0
   Left Beeres in Sundry pticulars wth. the tran-
       sportation of the corne . . . . . . . 13   6   8

   to Left Beeres  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3   2   8
   Goodman Bloyse  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2  10   0

[Picture omitted]

              MINUTES OF THE QUARTER COURT.
Showing appointment of John Whitney as Constable of Watertown.

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            249

                                              £   s   d
   Brother Thacher . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   5  10
   more to Brother Thacher
       For 52 weekes at 2s the weeke . . . .  7  16   0
& for the losse he ptends will be in the taking of
       this some . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0  17   4

Page 95:

   Reckoned wth Mr. Whittney & John Hammond   £   s   d
       Constables & apo a Country rate of this yeare
       in some . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57   0   0
   ye are indebted apon yt rate & apo a towne
       rate of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72  13   2
   ye are indebted to the towne  . . . . . .  3  12   7
   & the bill of debts committed into there hand
       is in pt unsatissffied as it stands apo record.

Page 98:
                 Credit given to the towne.   £   s   d
   Mr. Norcrosse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15   3   0
   2 County warents  . . . . . . . . . . . . 10   0   0
   to John Witheral
   to Geo Woodward
   to Mr Whittney
   Thacher
   Mr Whittney
   Crisp for widow Brabrooke
   Bearsto for Knop
   Left Beeres
   Cha. Chadwick
   bro. Bloyse
   for ould Knop

Page 105:
         Att a meeting of the Select men
         att Capt Masans the 23 of march. 59
There beeing a Case psented unto the select men of diffar-
ence concerning Fences, betwixt Will Bond & Mr Whittney,

250         The Ancestry of John Whitney

and the sd Willi was wiling to referr the case to the 7 men;
but in the interim all pties concerned in the case, yt is to
say Mr. Whittney, Martin Vnderwood & Henry Spring, in
reference to the fence in deference, namely the fence yt is
the betwixt Will Bond one ptie & the three aboue named
the other ptie who doe ingage to make thirty rod of the sd
Fence diffarence, & to maintaine it from henceforth.

Page 108:
               towne Creditors.                  £   s   d   
     Edmond Bloyse . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3   0   0
     Mr. Whittney  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1   0   0
     Brother Thacher for foxes . . . . . . . .  1   4   0

   Chosen to Order the towne affaires for this yeare Capt
Masan, Ephraim Child, Leftt Beeres, Sargt Bright Michakk
Bearsto, Charles Chadwick, Tho. Hastings.
   Chosen to keepe the towne Booke is Emphraim Child.
   John Coolig Senior & Nathan Fiske for Sarueires.
   Josep Mosses & Willia Shattock are Chosen for to looke
to the order concerning hogs & Fences, & are to be regu-
lated by such orders as shall be apoynted by the Select  
men.
   Mr Norcrosse was Chosen for Schoolemaister for this
yeare apon the same tearmes as in former yeares.

Page 111:

   Mr Norcrosse complaining of some neglect of the schoole
howse as yett not finished, the select men promised a re-
dresse.
   Charles Chadwick, & Ephraim Child are apoynted to
make the Country rate, & to call into them Mr. Whittney
who hath the invoyce.

Page 116:

                A meeting of the Select men
         the 8th of January 1660. att Bro. Bearstoe.
   Upon a complaint of such as haue to gather the Country

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            251

rate wee weare informed yt the estate of the deceased Joh
Flemin was left out of the sd rate.  It is ordered yt Mr
Whittney shall enquire apon whose head it is, to lett John
Bernard know yt if he will not make it knowne, yt then
Mr Whitney doe warne the sd John Bernard to make his
answer the next meeting of the Select men, yt the country
may not be wronged.

Page 117:
             Creditor to the towne:                £   s   d
   Mr. Norcrosse  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12   0   0
   Roger Willington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0  16   8
   Mr. Whittney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1   5   0
   John Sawin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0  10   0
   John Larance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1  01   6
   Tho. Tarboll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   6   0
   Daniel Metup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   2   0
   John Spring  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   Tho. Whittney  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   Rich. Bloyse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   Rich. Sautle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   2   0
   John Bigula  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   2   0
   Jona: Browne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   5   0
   John. Winter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   Left Beeres  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0  10   0
   For the country rate . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8   9   6
   Samuel Thacher for Mr Pheakes  . . . . . . . .  7  16   0
   Edmond Bloyse  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3   0   0
   Edward Garfield  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   4   0
   John Benjamin  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   John Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  0   1   0
   For the meeting howse  . . . . . . . . . . . .  0  16   0
   For the buying of the amunition  . . . . . . .  1   0   0
   For the releefe of the pore  . . . . . . . . . 10   0   0
   For the meeting howse  . . . . . . . . . . . .  5   0   0
   For the exspencses of the deputies at boston .  2   6   4
   The fines of hogs comes to . . . . . . . . . . 10  10   0

252         The Ancestry of John Whitney

Page 126:

   November the 16th 1663 at a General meeting. It
was agreed that the pastuor shall have for his maintainance
this yeer on hundered and forty pounds.
   Mr Whetney was Chossen to take an inventory of  the es-
tate of the towne.

   It will be noticed that, though many citizens are
mentioned, "Mr." Whitney shared his distinction
with but three others, of whom one was Mr Norcross,
the schoolmaster, and another Mr. Browne, the deputy
to the general court.
   Of his wife Elinor, mother of his eight sons, noth-
mg appears except that she died in Watertown, May
11, 1659, at the age of sixty.
   His children were:

   1. Mary, Baptized at Isleworth, England, May 23, 1619.
Probably died young.

   2. John, Baptized at Isleworth, England, Sept. 14, 1621;
m. 1642, Ruth Reynolds, daughter of Robert Reynolds of
Watertown and Boston; had a family of five sons and five
daughters, viz: (1) John, (2) Ruth, (3) Nathaniel, (4) Sam-
uel, (5) Mary, (6) Joseph, (7) Sarah, (8) Elizabeth, (9) Han-
nah, (10) Benjamin; d. in Watertown, Oct. 12, 1692, aged
71 years.
   From him was descended ELI WHITNEY the inventor of
the "cotton gin."
   3. Richard, Baptized at Isleworth, England, January 6,
1624.  Came to Watertown, Mass., with his father in 1635;
m. in Wat. March 19, 1651, Martha Coldam.  Moved from
Wat. to Stow, Mass. in 1681.  Had family of four sons and
four daughters, viz: (1) Sarah, (2) Moses, (3) Johanna, (4)
Debora, (5) Rebecca, (6) Richard, (7) Elisha, (8) Ebenezer;
d. in Stow.

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            253

   His descendants include General Josiah Whitney, Gen-
eral James Scollay Whitney, Henry Melville Whitney, Hon.
William Collins Whitney, Rev. Dr. Henry Whitney Bellows,
Prof. Josiah Dwight Whitney, Prof. William Dwight Whit-
ney, and many other persons of distinction.
   4. Nathaniel, Born in England; not mentioned in father's
will. Probably died young.
   5. Thomas, Born in England; m. Mary Kedall (Kendall)
of Watertown. Had seven sons and four daughters, viz:
(1) Thomas, (2) John, (3) John, (4) Eleazer, (5) Elnathan,
(6) Mary, (7) Bezaleel, (8) Sarah, (9) Mary, (10) Isaiah, (11)
Martha; d. in Watertown, Sept. 20, 1719, aged about 90
years.
   6. Jonathan, Born in England about 1634; m. Oct. 30,
1656, Lydia Jones. Moved from Watertown to Sherbourne,
1679. Had seven sons and four daughters, viz: (1) Lydia,
(2) Jonathan, (S) Anna, (4) John, (5) Josiah, (6) Elinor, (7)
James, (8) Isaac, (9) Joseph, (10) Abigail, (11) Benjamin; d.
in Sherbourne, Dec. 1702, aged 68 years.
   From him was descended Asa Whitney, b. Dec. 1, 1791, in
Townsend, Mass., who invented corrugated and annealed
car wheels, was president of Reading R. R., &c. &c.
   7. Joshua, The first Whitney born in America; b. in
Watertown July 15, 1635, a few weeks after the landing
of the family.  Was one of the first settlers of Groton,
Mass.; had three wives, viz: Lydia, Mary, and Abigail; and
four sons and seven daughters, viz: (1) Hannah, (2) Joshua,
(3) Sarah, (4) Abigail, (5) Mary, (6) William, (7) Cornelius,
(8) David, (9) Martha, (10) Elizabeth, (11) Eleanor; d. in
Groton, Mass., August 7, 1719, aged 83 years.
   8. Caleb, Born in Watertown, and died 1640.
   9. Benjamin, Born in Watertown, June 6, 1643. Lived
in Watertown, York, Me., Cocheco and Sherbourne, Mass.;
had two wives, Jane and Mary; one daughter and three
sons, viz: (1) Jane, (2) Benjamin, (3) Jonathan, (4) Joshua;
d. in Sherbourne, 1723, aged 80 years.

254         The Ancestry of John Whitney

   These records, though meager, are perhaps enough
to enable us to form some idea of Mr. Whitney's
characteristics, physical and mental. That he was
above the average in size and strength may be in-
ferred from the fact that he was selected for the
office of constable, representing the majesty of  
the law and the dignity of the State, and from his liv-
ing to be eighty-one and maintaining the manage-
ment of his farm until he was seventy-six. That he
had a good education for the times is shown by an
examination of his accounts, made up in a neat and
orderly manner, and of the handwriting, spelling, and
expression of his other records, and a comparison of
them with those of his contemporaries. That he was
scrupulously honest is evident from the fact that
for so many years he was selected to handle the
public money. That he was an active, energetic
man of superior ability is certain from the fact that
his merits were recognized so quickly in a community
composed of an excellent class of citizens.  Finally,
we can be certain that he was a God-fearing Chris-
tian of the strictest conduct in private life, from the
fact that he was a member of one of the earliest
Puritan churches in the New World.
   In the Watertown Records for 1673 is this entry:

   John Whitney, widdower, deceased first of June, aged
abought eighty-four years.1

   His will, made upon his death-bed, written by his
friend William Bond, is on file in the office of the Re-

   1 His actual age was eighty-one. An overestimate in case of an
octogenarian is not surprising.  The "abought" indicates that the
clerk had no accurate information.


            The Ancestry of John Whitney            255

gister of Probate for Middlesex County at East Cam-
bridge, Mass.  The following is a copy:

   I JOHN WHITNEY SENIOR of Watertown, in ye County of
Middlesex: being perfect and sound in memory and under-
standing blessed be God for it: doo declare this to be my
last will and testament in manner and form as followeth
   Fst. I commit my spirit into ye hand of god yt gave it;
and my body unto ye earth whence it was taken:
   2 ly. I give unto my son John Whitney: my meadow
called beaver-brook meadow with ye upland  yt doth aper-
taine thereto: and a yoake of oxen: or nine pounds ten
shillings: and ten acres of my land called devedend land
and a trunke and one paire of sheets and one paire of pil-
low beers and two pewter dishes a great one and a small
one and the bed whereon I lie with all ye furniture there-
unto belonging.
   3 ly I give unto my son Richard Whitney ten acres of
my land called devedend and two cows and a great sea
chest.
   4 ly I give unto my son Thomas Whitney ten acres of
my land called devedend and two cows and a sad colored
sute namely a paire of breeches and a close coate and pew-
ter dish.
   5 ly. I give unto my son Jonathan Whitney: one iron
kittle and a great brass skillit.
   6 ly. I give unto my son Joshua Whitney: twenty acres
of my land called devedend: and  a cubard and a little table
and a cheste and a great kittle and a warming pan and a
skillit.
   7 ly. I give unto my son Benjamin Whitney: the old.
mare if she live:
   8 ly. My will is yt what of my estate be left over after
all is paid out as above sd namely of my movables yt it be
equally divided betweene my executors and I doo nominate
and apoynt my well beloved son John Whitney and Joshua
Whitney; to be my executors to this my Will and testa-

256         The Ancestry of John Whitney

ment and doo desire my loving friend William Bond Senior
to see yt this my will be performed according to ye true in-
tent of it as is aforesaid and doo set to my hand this 3rd of
Aprill: 1673.

ye interline in ye line
24 ye word divided:
was done before any
subscribing or Sealing
In ye presence of us:
William Bond Senior                    ye marke of
Sarah Bond Senior                          x   (L. S.)
                                   John Whitney Senior

   17. 4 .73. at Charlestown Court attested on oath by Wm.
Bond and Sarah his wife attest
                                     Thos. Danforth.

   [Endorsement] This is the last and third will of John
Whitney.

   The small amount given to some of his sons was
because he had previously provided them with farms.
   The following is a copy of the inventory, also on
file at East Cambridge. It is gratifying to note that
"the old mare" lived.

   This is an Inventory of ye estate of Mr. John Whitnie
 Senior: taken this 4th of July, 1673: by us whose names
are hereunto subscribed.

Imprs:
               Wearing cloths.                    £  s. d.
   a sad colorid Sute coat and breeches:          1 10  0
   ye rest of bothe linin and woolin and shoos
   stockins hats gloves: being much worne:        2 10  0
   ye bed whereon he lay with all the furniture
   thereunto belonging                            5  0  0

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            257

                                                     £  s. d.
   three pillow beers three sheets and three
   small old table cloaths                           1  0  0
   an old fether bolster and fether pillow,          0 12  0
   A sea chest                                       0 14  0
   two old chests an old trunk an old box and
   an old cubard                                     0 14  0
   two old tables one forme four old chairs          1  0  0
   three pewter platters and basson a sacer an
   old great pot an old pewter botle and a
   chamber pot                                       0 12  0
   a brass kitle 2 brass skillits a brass skimer
   a warming pan a small brass morter a litle
   ladle of brass                                    1  2  0
   an iron pot and pot hooks a tramell a iron
   kitle a spit a smoothing iron and two old
   frieing pans                                      1  5  0
   three earthen vessels a great grater two
   cheeny dishes a dozen of trenchers a wooden
   dish three chees moals                               0  3  0
   a small trevet a paire of tongs and a small
   paire of scalls pund and half in weights a
   spindle for a wheele and a iron bullet            0  2  0
   a churne and other lumber                         0  5  0
   foure cows                                       10  0  0
   two oxen                                          9 10  0
   an old mare                                       2 10  0
   an old saddle and pillon                          0 10  0
   an old paire of hoops and boxes for a cart
   a paire of iron pins for ye extree a paire of
   lince pins and washers                            0 10  0
   a chaine a iron bar a spoone of iron an old
   adze a set for a saw 2 wedges and an iron
   pin for a cart a hay crouse and other old iron    0 12  0
   a grind stone with ye iron to it                  0  4  0
   an old hame a cart rope an old bage 2 old
   cushions                                          0 12  0
   fifty acres of land called dividend              25  0  0

258         The Ancestry of John Whitney

                                                     £  s. d.
   three acres of meadow at Beever brooke with
   an acre and half of upland to it                 20  0  0
   an acre of meadow called plaine meadow           10  0  0
   a forke and shovall                               0  2  0
   also etc. etc. of                                 0 14  0
                        Joseph Underwood
                        William Bond
                        Nathan Fiske Senior.
   At a court at Charlestown
          17. 4. 1673.
   Sworn by ye executors
                                    Thos. Danforth.

   It is probable that differences of opinion in religion
and politics restricted intercourse between the two
branches of the family long before the emigration,
and that this event cut it off entirely. The imme-
diate descendants of the Puritan were content to date
the commencement of their history in 1635, and, with
a new world of boundless possibilities before them,
they neither knew nor cared what had gone before.
   If there were still Whitneys of Whitney, they
would doubtless have traditions of many an event
as joyous as the marriage feast of Robert and Alice,
and as terrible as the slaughter at Pilleth; tales
would have been handed down of thrilling adven-
ture in border forays, of romance and intrigue, of
gallant feats of arms at tournament and on battle-
field--tales the truth of which would be capable of
confirmation; but for more than two centuries, a
lord of another name has held the manor and resided
at Whitney Court.
   When, therefore, at this late day, two hundred
and sixty years after he settled at Watertown,

            The Ancestry of John Whitney            259

we attempt to learn something of "the Ancestry of
John Whitney," we have hardly a clue to guide
us, and can only search at random among the great
mass of, often unassorted, materials that makes
up the archives of England, in the hope that some-
thing of interest has escaped destruction and that
we may happen upon it.
   The foregoing pages embody what has thus far
been discovered, and there is no stronger proof of
the worth of the gallant knights and squires who
made their home on the banks of the Wye, than
that, with all this handicap, we can learn enough to
tell a connected story of their lives.
   They certainly had in their veins some of the best
blood of England and were held in high regard by
their contemporaries. Mr. Green's remark that the
family "yielded in nearly every generation one or
more members of eminence" was fully justified.
   What little we know is of such a character as to
render it sure that the full truth would do them even
greater credit.
   They deserved a better fate than to be forgotten
by their descendants, and it is hoped that hereafter
many will rise up to do them reverence, so that, in
the words of the Oxford scholar:

   Though Whitney's dead his name shall never dye.

[Picture omitted]

             THE IMPALED ACHIEVEMENT OF
       SIR ROBERT WHITNEY, OF WHITNEY, KNIGHT,
             AND DAME SYBIL, HIS WIFE,
   AS BY THEM ENTITLED TO BE BORNE ON THE DEATH OF
    SYMON BREYNTON, OF STRETTON SUGWAS, ESQUIRE,
   UNCLE TO THE SAID SYBIL, WITHOUT ISSUE LAWFUL,
                 ANNO . . . ELIZ.
      MARSHALED BY C. E. GILDERSOME-DICKINSON
                   OF LONDON.
          DEXTER, QUARTERLY OF TWENTY-SIX.
        SINISTER, QUARTERLY OF THIRTY-EIGHT.


+-----------+----------+----------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|     1     |     2    |     3    |    4    |     1     |    2     |    3     |    4    |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         |Baskerville|   Rees   |          |         |
|  Whitney  |Milbourne |Eynesford |Furnival |    of     |    of    | Lenthall | Le Gros |
|    of     |    of    |   of     |   of    | Eardisley |  Wales   |          |         |
|  Whitney  |Tillington|Tillington| Munden  |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |Furnival +-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|           |          |          |         |     5     |    6     |    7     |    8    |
|-----------+----------+----------+---------+           |          |          |         |
|     5     |     6    |     7    |    8    |  Botler   |Pedwardine| Solers   | Paveley |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|  Luvetot  |  Ledet   | Folliot  |Reincurt |           |          |          |         |
|    of     |    of    |    of    |   of    +-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|  Worksop  | Ramerick | Ramerick |Ramerick |     9     |    10    |    11    |   12    |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         |  Bruges   |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         |    of     |  Pycard  |  Sapie   |Delamere |
|-----------+----------+----------+---------+  Letton   |          |          |         |
|     9     |    10    |    11    |   12    |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         +-----------+----------+----------+---------+
| Morville  |          |          |Stutville|    13     |    14    |    15    |   16    |
|     of    | Engayne  | Trivers  |   of    |           |          |          |         |
|   Isell   |          |          |  Kirk   | Breynton  |Milbourne |Eynesford |Furnival |
|           |          |          | Oswald  |    of     |    of    |    of    |   of    |
|           |          |          |         | Stretton  |Tillington|Tillington| Munden  |
|           |          |          |         |  Sugwas   |          |          |Furnival |
|-----------+----------+----------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|    13     |    14    |    15    |   16    |    17     |    18    |    19    |   20    |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|Baskerville|   Rees   |          |         |  Luvetot  |  Ledet   | Folliot  |Reincurt |
|    of     |    of    | Lenthall | Le Gros |    of     |    of    |    of    |   of    |
|   Icomb   |  Wales   |          |         |  Worksop  | Ramerick | Ramerick |Ramerick |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         +-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|           |          |          |         |    21     |    22    |    23    |   24    |
|-----------+----------+----------+---------+           |          |          |         |
|    17     |    18    |    19    |   20    | Morville  |          |          |Stutville|
|           |          |          |         |    of     | Engayne  | Trivers  |   of    |
|           |          |          |         |   Isell   |          |          |  Kirk   |
|  Botler   |Pedwardine|  Solers  | Paveley |           |          |          | Oswald  |
|           |          |          |         +-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|           |          |          |         |    25     |    26    |    27    |   28    |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         |Baskerville|   Rees   | Lenthall | Le Gros |
|-----------+----------+----------+---------+    of     |    of    |          |         |
|    21     |    22    |    23    |   24    |   Icomb   |  Wales   |          |         |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|  Bruges   |          |          |         +-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|    of     |  Pycard  |  Sapie   |Delamere |    29     |    30    |    31    |   32    |
|  Letton   |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         |  Botlar   |Pedwardine|  Solers  | Paveley |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|           |          |          |         |           |          |          |         |
|-----------+----------+----------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+
|          25          |         26         |    33     |    34    |    35    |   36    |
|                      |                    |           |          |          |         |
|       Blacket        |       Whitney      |  Bruges   |  Pycard  |  Sapie   |Delamere |
 \         of          |          of        |    of     |          |          |        /
  \      Icomb         |       Whitney      |  Letton   |          |          |       /
   \                   |                    +-----------+-----+----+----------+------/
    \                  |                    |       37        |         38          /
     `.                |                    |                 |                   .'
       `.              |                    |     Blacket     |   Baskerville   ,'
         `.            |                    |       of        |       of      ,'
           `.          |                    |      Icomb      |   Eardisley ,'
             `.        |                    |                 |           ,'
               `.      |                    |                 |         ,'
                 `.    |                    |                 |       ,'
                   `.  |                    |                 |     ,'
                     `-|                    |                 |  ,-'
                        `-.                 |                 |-'
                           `-.              |              ,-'
                              `-._          |          _,-'
                                  `-._______|_______,-'

              KEY TO IMPALED ACHIEVEMENT SHOWN ON OPPOSITE PAGE.

   Dexter, 1 and 26, azure, a cross chequy or and gules.  Dexter 2 and Sinister 14, gules, a chevron between 3
escalops argent.  Dexter 3 and Sinister 15, gules, fretty ermine.  Dexter 4 and Sinister 16, argent, a bend
between 6 martlets gules, a crescent for difference.  Dexter 5 and Sinister 17, argent, a lion rampant per
fess gules and sable.  Dexter 6 and Sinister 18, gules, a fess dancetté between 14 cross crosslets 4 and 3, 3
and 4, or.  Dexter 7 and Sinister 19, barry nebulé of 6, ermine and gules.  Dexter 8 and Sinister 20, azure, 
a fess dancetté between 6 garbs or.  Dexter 9 and Sinister 21, azure, semée de lis, fretty or.  Dexter 10
and Sinister 22, gules, a fess dancetté between 6 cross crosslets or.  Dexter 11 and Sinister 23, argent, 3 bears
statant in pale sable.  Dexter 12 and Sinister 24, barry of 12 argent and gules.  Dexter 13 and Sinister 25,
argent, a chevron gules between 3 hurts, a crescent for difference.  Dexter 14 and Sinister 2 and 26, quar-
terly per fess indented gules and ermine, in chief a file of 3 per fess or and sable.  Dexter 15 and Sinister 3
and 27, gules, a fess ermine, in chief a file of 5 or.  Dexter 16 and Sinister 4 and 28, quarterly argent and
azure, on a bend sable 3 martlets or.  Dexter 17 and Sinister 5 and 29, gules, a fess chequy argent and sable
between 6 cross crosslets or.  Dexter 18 and Sinister 6 and 30, argent, 2 lions passant in pale, their tails in-
terlaced between the hinder legs azure, langued gules.  Dexter 19 and Sinister 7 and 31, argent, a chevron
azure between 3 lions' heads erased gules.  Dexter 20 and Sinister 8 and 32, azure, a cross fleuretté or.  Dex-
ter 21 and Sinister 9 and 33, argent, on a cross sable a leopard's face or.  Dexter 22 and Sinister 10 and 34,
gules, a fess or between 3 escalops argent.  Dexter 23 and Sinister 11 and 35, argent, on a bend gules 3
buckles or.  Dexter 24 and Sinister 12 and 36, argent, a fess between 3 cinquefoils gules.  Dexter 25 and
Sinister 37, azure, a bend coticed between 6 cross crosslets fitchée or.  Sinister 13, argent, a chevron be-
tween 3 martlets sable.  Sinister 1 and 38, argent, a chevron gules between 3 hurts.


Back || Forward || Up


Copyright © 2004, 2006 The Whitney Research Group

Personal tools