Ancestors

Maj. William Whiting

William Whiting was at Hartford by 1636. Savage calls him "a wealthy merch. who had been engag. in a patent for lds. at Swamscot with Lord Say and Lord Brook." Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke were two Puritan peers who backed settlements in New England. Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut River, is named for them.

Savage thought he may have come over in 1633 with Thomas Wiggin, the lords' agent, and that Wiggin's wife was his sister, because his will leaves her and each of her children "decent legacies."

In 1637 he sat in the first house of representatives of Connecticut. In 1641 he was chosen an Assistant, one of the magistrates. From 1643 until his death he was Treasurer of the colony, and by the end he was called Major.

He kept trading houses on the Delaware River and at Westfield, and he went on voyages often. Each time he set out he seems to have put his affairs in order. He made his will on 20 March 1643, when his son William was not yet twenty one. He added a codicil on 2 April 1646, and a further addition on 24 July 1647. He died soon after, for his widow had administration of the estate on 2 September 1647.

The will names five children: William, John, Samuel, Sarah and Mary. Joseph, born on 2 October 1645, appears in the first codicil, and another son was born after his father died. Sarah married Jacob Mygatt about the end of 1654. Mary married the Rev. Nathaniel Collins of Middletown on 3 August 1664.

His eldest son William became a merchant in London. In 1686 the Connecticut Assembly chose him as its agent to present the colony's address to the throne about its charter, and thanked him for his good service. He died in 1699.

His widow, Susanna, married twice more and died at her daughter Mary Collins's house in Middletown in 1673.

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Cite: Heirology, "Maj. William Whiting (d. 1647)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/maj-william-whiting-1647-ffca83.