A first look at Moses Mather’s second wife

An appreciation of the life and lineage of Elizabeth Whiting

On January 1, 1756 Moses Mather married Elizabeth Whiting. Together they had one son, Noyes Mather. Sadly, Elizabeth died in December 1757. But in many ways her family story closely parallels that of the early Mathers in America and even intersects.

Briefly, Elizabeth’s father was Joseph Whiting Jr. (1692-1757). He and Elizabeth’s mother, Abigail Holly, are buried in Noroton River Graveyard on the banks of Holly Pond. (And yes, Holly Pond was named after a later member of the Holly family.)

Joseph’s father was Rev. Joseph Whiting Sr., (1641-1723). A graduate of Harvard, he succeeded his father (see below) as pastor in Lynn, MA. In 1682, Joseph Whiting accepted an invitation to leave Massachusetts and became the pastor in South-ampton, Long Island, New York, where his pastorage covered about 33 years.

Daily Evening item. Lynn, Massachusetts, April 10, 1929

The Reverend Samuel Whiting (1597-1679) was Elizabeth’s great-grandfather. Emigrating in 1636, one year after Rev, Richard Mather, Rev. Whiting was the first pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Lynn, Massachusetts, serving there from

8 November 1636 until his death.

Rev. Samuel Whiting was a both colleague and cousin of Increase Mather. He was also a colleague of Rev. John Cotton, a preeminent religious leader in Massachusetts Bay who had

previously been Samuel Whiting's parish priest in Boston, Lincolnshire. Cotton Mather included an elegy of Samuel Whiting in his major work, "Magnalia Christi Americana."