Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/29

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Whitaker
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Whitaker
de Sacramentis in Genere et in Specie de. SS. Baptismo et Eucharistia,' Frankfort, 1624.
  1. 'Articuli de prædestinatione … Lambethæ propositi, et L. Andrews de iisdem Iudicium,' London, 1651.

Other works by Whitaker are extant in manuscript; the Bodleian Library has 'Commentarii in Cantica,' and 'Prælectiones in priorem Epistolam ad Corinthios' by him; Caius College, 'Theses: de fide Davidis; de Prædestinatione;' and St. John's College, Cambridge, a treatise on ecclesiastical polity (MS. H. 8), which Baker (Hist. of St. John's College, p. 188) thinks was probably from his pen, although it leans somewhat to Erastianism.

[Vitæ et mortis doctissimi sanctissimique Theologi Guillielmi Whitakeri vera descriptio (by Abdias Ashton), in Opera, i. 698-704; Epicedia in obitum ejusdem theologi a variis doctis viris Græce et Latine scripta, ib. i. 706-714 (a collection of more than ordinary interest); Life by Gataker in Fuller's Abel Redivivus, pp. 401-8; Churton's Life of Nowell, pp. 325-34; Strype's Life of Whitgift; Baker's Hist. of St. John's College, ed. Mayor; Baker MSS.; Heywood and Wright's Cambridge University Transactions; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. vol. ii.; Mullinger's Hist. of the University of Cambridge, vol. ii.]

J. B. M.

WHITAKER, WILLIAM (1629–1672), puritan divine, son of Jeremiah Whitaker [q. v.], was born at Oakham, Rutland, in 1629, and in his fifteenth year was admitted a member of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he became noted for his skill in the classical and oriental languages. Richard Holdsworth [q. v.], master of the college, set him the task of translating Eustathius upon Homer, and he performed it in a highly creditable manner. He took the degree of B.A. in 1642. Two years later he was admitted a fellow of Queens' College by virtue of a parliamentary ordinance, and in 1646 he graduated M.A. as a member of that college. In 1652 he took orders and became minister of Hornchurch, Essex. He succeeded his father in the living of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, in 1654, and he was one of the London ministers who drew up and presented to the king the memorial against the oppression of the Act of Uniformity. After his ejectment he gathered a private congregation, which assembled in a small meeting-house in Long Walk, Bermondsey. For many years his house was full of candidates in divinity, and he had many foreign divines under his care. He died in 1672.

He has two sermons in Annesley's 'Morning Exercises,' and in 1674 eighteen of his sermons, which had been taken in shorthand, were published by his widow, with a dedication to Elizabeth, countess of Exeter, and a sketch of the author's character by Thomas Jacomb, D.D.

[Funeral Sermon by Samuel Annesley, LL.D., 1673; Addit. MS. 5883, f. 164; Calamy's Life of Baxter, ii. 25; Silvester's Life of Baxter, pp. 285, 430, pt. iii. 87, 95; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 2nd edit. pp. 157, 431; Dunn's Seventy-five Eminent Divines, p. 70.]

T. C.

WHITBOURNE, Sir RICHARD (fl. 1579–1626), writer on Newfoundland, born at Exmouth in Devonshire, was 'a traveler and adventurer into foreign countries' at fifteen years of age. His journeys extended to 'France, Spaine, Italy, Sauoy, Denmarke, Norway, Spruceland, the Canaries, and Soris Hands.' He made his first voyage to Newfoundland about 1579 in a vessel of 300 tons, freighted by Edward Cotton of Southampton. He visited the island again in 1583 in a Southampton vessel of 220 tons, and was eye-witness of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's formal annexation of the country, the ceremony taking place in the harbour of St. John's. In 1585 he paid a third visit in a ship of which he was part owner, and saw Sir Bernard Drake [q. v.] capture 'many Portugall ships laden with fish.' In 1588 Whitbourne equipped a ship at his own expense to serve against the Spanish armada, commanding her in person, and on taking leave of the English admiral, Lord Howard, received 'favorable letters' from him. He made several other voyages to Newfoundland, and occasionally fell in with pirates. In 1611 he met the famous Peter Easton, for whom he subsequently solicited a pardon at court, and in 1614 encountered Sir Henry Mainwaring. On 11 May 1615 he sailed from Exeter in a bark equipped at his own charge bearing a commission from the court of admiralty to hold courts of vice-admiralty in Newfoundland, the first attempt to create a formal court of justice in the country. He proceeded to the various harbours, called the masters of the English ships together and held courts, in which he carefully inquired into disorders committed on the coast, receiving presentments and transmitting them to the admiralty.

In 1616 a ship of Whitbourne's was rifled 'by a French pyrate of Rochell,' one Daniel Tibolo, by which he lost more than 860l. In 1617 he was sent for by Sir William Vaughan [q. v.], who was attempting to people Newfoundland with Welshmen, and in the year following was entrusted with the conduct of a second detachment of colo-