The Reverend Samuel Whiting Jr. (March 25, 1633 – February 28, 1713) was the first minister of Billerica, Massachusetts, from November 11, 1663, to February 28, 1713.

Biography

He was the son of the Reverend Samuel Whiting and his second wife, Elizabeth St. John. Elizabeth belonged to the prominent landowning family of St. John of Lydiard Tregoze; she was the sister of Oliver St. John, a leading lawyer and judge who was one of the foremost opponents of King Charles I of England during the English Civil War. When the elder Reverend Samuel Whiting arrived from King's Lynn England in 1637, the residents of Lynn, Massachusetts changed the name of their settlement in his honor. Samuel Whiting Jr. graduated from Harvard in 1653. While some sources indicate he had a brother, Nathaniel, this is in error. In his father's memoir it is clear he had no son named Nathaniel.