The Reverend Samuel Whiting Jr. (March 25, 1633 – February 28, 1713)[citation needed] was the first minister of Billerica, Massachusetts,[1] from November 11, 1663, to February 28, 1713.[citation needed]
He was the son of the Reverend Samuel Whiting and his second wife,[1] Elizabeth St. John.[2] Elizabeth belonged to the prominent landowning family of St. John of Lydiard Tregoze; she was the sister[2] 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.[3]
Samuel Whiting Jr. graduated from Harvard in 1653.[1] While some sources indicate he had a brother, Nathaniel,[4] this is in error. In his father's memoir[5] it is clear he had no son named Nathaniel.
When the first official minister, Samuel Whiting, arrived from King's Lynn, England, the new settlers were so excited that they changed the name of their community to Lynn in 1637 in honor of him.