Family:Whitney, Thomas (b1765-a1828)
Thomas Whitney, parentage unknown, was born before 1765 and died after 1820.
He married an unknown woman.
They appear to have had children, based upon census records.
Thomas Whitney, an English artisan who settled in Philadelphia, advertised "surveying instruments on an improved construction" in 1798, and by 1820 he had made about five hundred compasses, "the good qualities of which are well known to many Surveyors, in at least sixteen of the States and Territories of the Union." Whitney sold plain compasses for thirty to thirty-seven dollars, and "Nonius or Minute" compasses for forty to sixty dollars. He also kept a "book of record for Magnetic Observations” and invited contributions from "any gentleman who is pleased to throw light on this important subject."[1]
Census
- 1810, W Northern Liberties, Philadelphia Co., PA: Thos Whitney, 1 male 45 and over, 1 male 16-25, 2 males under 10, 1 female 26-44, 1 female 16-25, 2 females under 10.
- 1820, Kensington, Philadelphia Co., PA: Thos. Whitney, 1 male 5 and over, 2 males 10-15, 4 males under 10, 1 female 26-44, 1 female 16-25, 2 females 10-15, 1 person engaged in manufacturing.
References
- Census records
1. ^ Deborah Jean Warner, True North—And Why It Mattered in Eighteenth-Century America, p. 383, citing the following:
- Thomas Whitney’s advertisement in the Federal Gazette (12 April 1798), 3, quoted in part in Gillingham, “Some Early Philadelphia Instrument Makers,” 298–308, on 304–05; Whitney’s advertisement in Whitely’s Philadelphia Annual Advertiser for 1820. For prices, see Whitney’s trade card, in private hands.
- Thomas Whitney, “Variation of the Compass,” broadside in compass box at NMAH.
Copyright © 2010, Tim Doyle and the Whitney Research Group
