Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Whitney, Peter

WHITNEY, Peter, clergyman, b. in Northborough, Mass., 6 Sept., 1744; d. there, 29 Feb., 1816. He was graduated at Harvard in 1762, and on 4 Nov., 1767, ordained pastor at Northborough, where he remained till his death. He was the author of a “History of the County of Worcester” (Worcester, 1793); single sermons; and papers in the “Memoirs of the American Academy.” His son, Peter (1770-1843), was graduated at Harvard in 1791, had charge of the church at Quincy, Mass., from 1800 till his death, and published various discourses.—The second Peter's son, George, clergyman, b. in Quincy, Mass., 2 July, 1804; d. in Jamaica Plain, Mass., 2 April, 1842, was graduated at Harvard in 1824 and at the divinity-school in 1828, and from 1831 till his death was pastor of churches in Roxbury. He published “Some Account of the Early History and Present State of the Town of Quincy, Mass.” (Boston, 1827), of which he was preparing an enlarged edition at the time of his death.—George's brother, Frederic Augustus, clergyman, b. in Quincy, Mass., 13 Sept., 1812; d. in Brighton, Mass., 21 Oct., 1880, was graduated at Harvard in 1833 and at the divinity-school in 1838, teaching in the mean time. After doing missionary work, he was pastor at Brighton, Mass., in 1843-'59, and afterward lived in that town without a pastoral charge. He issued thirteen annual reports as chairman of the town school committee, and nine as president of the trustees of the Public library. Besides these, and various sermons, addresses, and contributions to current literature, he published “Historical Sketch of the Old Church at Quincy” (Albany, 1864), and “Biography of James Holton,” founder of the Holton library, Brighton (Boston, 1865). He was also the author of various hymns, some of which are collected in Rev. Alfred P. Putnam's “Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith” (Boston, 1875).