General Notes

1  BIRT
2  DATE 1620
2  PLAC Berkhamstead, St. Marys, Herts, ENG
2  SOUR S03683
3  PAGE Tree #5625
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: Feb 23, 1999
1  DEAT
2  DATE 1673
2  PLAC Norwalk, CT
2  SOUR S03683
3  PAGE Tree #5625
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: Feb 23, 1999
1  _FA1
2  DATE 1649
2  PLAC Bought land on Long Island
2  SOUR S03683
3  PAGE Tree #5625
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: Feb 23, 1999


Occupation: Millwright and miller (with his son)

He BIR-DEA: From various GenServ Gedcoms: Sources referenced: '1st Families of America' and 'Phoenix's Whitneys of Connecticut'.

MARR: Henry WHITNEY was married: 1st wife is unknown, but she was possibly born in England and died before 1650 in England? or Southhold, Long Island, NY; One Gedcom indicates her date of death as 1655. 2nd wife was SARAH (widow of Edward KETCHAM) SALMON.

One Gedcom indicates that Henry had a daughter (by his 1st wife) - name unknown.

HISTORY: As quoted from NEHG Register, Vol.33, p369 'The Whitney Family of Connecticut, and its Affiliations; being an Attempt to trace the Descendants, as well in the Female as Male lines, of Henry Whitney, from 1649 to 1878. To which is prefixed some Account of the Whitneys of England.' By S. Whitney Phoenix, New York; Privately printed. 1878 [3 vols. 4to.pp.xxii.+2740. No Portraits. Five hundred copies; also 10 copies folio. All for presentation.]

'Henry WHITNEY, the American ancestor of the family to which these volumes are devoted, came to this country as early as 1649. On the 8th of October in that year, he 'was associated with Edward TREADWELL and Thomas BENEDICT in buying three-fourths of William SALMON's land at Hashamommock in Southold, Long Island.' He removed from Southold as early as Aug. 17, 1658, when we find him an inhabitant of Huntington, L.I. Afterwards he resided in Jamaica, L.I., and Norwalk, Ct.; and probably died at the latter place in the autumn of 1673.'

FRAUDULENT: (See below) This information has been proven to be false: 'Henry is represented to have been a son of Thomas WHITNEY of Berkhampstead, Herts; and a tabular pedigree by Mrs. de Salis, of London, appears in this book, giving his line back twenty generations to one 'Sir Baldwinus DE WHITNEY.' Several generations further bring us to 'Exrog earl of Eygas and Ergagn.'

RESIDENCES: England; 1649-? Southold, Long Island; Huntington, L.I.; Jamaica, L.I.; 1665 Norwalk, CT.

See Whitney Family Genealogy for several pages of history on this colonist. It begins: Henry WHITNEY, the earliest of this family whom we can trace in America, was born in England, probably about the year 1620. No record of him has been found prior to 8 Oct. 1649, when he was associated with Edward TREDWELL and Thomas BENEDICT in buying three fourths of William SALMON's land at Rashamommock, in Southhold, Long Island. These four men made the following agreement, which is recorded in the town records of Southold, Vol. I, p. 89:

Wee whos names are vder written inhabiting vppon the neck of land commonly called Hashamommock considering that our Cumfort and quiett setlement would consist et stand in the inioyoment of good neigbourhood did make this agreement at our first sitting doune that what man soever should desire to remoue and to endeauor to make sale of his accomodacons should put in such a neighbour as the other Inhabitanc liveinge with him should approve of. Entered the 17th of May 1660 William SALMON p me Willm WELLS. Henry WHITNEY Edward TREDWELL Thomas BENIDICK.

'New Haven Colonial Records', Vol II, p. 349-50, show that Anthony WATERS, attorney for John CONCKLIN, Tho OSMAN & Tho RIDER, inhabitants of the land called Hashamommock, plainteifs, entered an action of the case against John BUDD Senior, for breach of an ancient order made for ye prservation of good neighbourhood, wch order or agreemt is as follweth. John BUDD junior appeared to answer the sute, May 28, 1660.

Footnote on page 1 reads as follows:

'Examine Chase's Map of Suffolk County, N. Y., and you may see a small body of water marked just north-west of the north-west point of Shelter Island and almost connecting Peconic Bay and Long Island Sound. The only separation is a level flat of sand and shingle, a few rods wide, and perhaps twenty long, partially covered with sedgy vegetation. Across this flat, the famous Gilford expedition drew their whale boats, when they made their successful descent upon the British post and stores at Sag Harbor. This flat is Hashamommuck Beach. The small body of water is now generally called Mill Creek, a tide-mill to grind grain having been built upon it many years ago, and one is still in use near the old site. . The creek is a few rods more than two miles east of the First Church of Southfold. It is just two miles east of the Southold station of the Long Island Rail Road Hash-amommuck is about a square mile directly east of this creek.' --(Letter quoted in 'Benedict Genealogy, p. 5.)

On p. 4,--'The first allusion to his wife is found in the following extract from the 'Huntington Court Records', p. 23, from which it seems that he married a widow KETCHAM; possibly Sarah, (That she was not his first wife appears from the fact that his son was of full age in 1666.) the widow of Edward KETCHAM, of Stratford, Conn., who died about 1655.'

'Whitney Family of Connecticut', Vol I SEEP 144/145.

New England Marriages', Torrey

Savage, 'Genealogical Dictionary of New England', p. 530.

Holmes, 'Dictionary of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700', page cclvxii [262].

Jacobus, 'Fairfield, CT', 1930-32, Vol 1: 688-689; Vol 2: 1040-1042' Vol 3: 353-354.

Frost, 'Keeler-Wood Family', 1939, 58-60.

Frost, 'The Strang Family', 1915, 156-157.

Pasted in the copy of the three-volume Whitney Genealogy which is located in the Allen County Library is a copy of the following letter:


London, Eng. Jan 16, 1880

+++++ I do not know whether Mr. Whitmore has mentioned to you the contents of my last letter to him respecting the 'Whitney Pedigree' in Mr. Phoenix's splendid volume. If not, I may now say to you that Mr. Phoenix's suspicions being aroused as to the accuracy of the English pedigree furnished by Mrs. DeLalis, he begged me to investigate it. It required but a single glance at the pedigree, and her statements in the text, to enable me to determine that they were fictitious, as I saw at once that they stated what I knew to be impossibilities. A little investigation revealed all that she had done, and enabled me to determine exactly how she had done it. As this is now the third of her American cases which I have examined with similar results, I felt not only justified but bound to interpose between her and my countrymen. I taxed her with what I had discovered, and now have her confessions that the two wills of Thomas Whitney and Ann Roberts, the alleged father and aunt of the emigrant Henry Whitney, on which alone the pedigre is based, (as you will seen by reference to the books) were pure fabrications, although she persists in declaring that they were not fabricated by herself, but by some mysterious 'assistant' to whom she trusted. This, however, I have good reason for not believing. I have also her written pledge that she will never again seek or accept a commission from the United States. I do not know yet what course Mr. Phoenix will pursue, either here or at home, so perhaps you will regard what I now write, at least semi-confidential, After this experience, it is fair to presume that all her other American clients have been treated in a similar manner.

Sincerely yours,

Jos. L . Chester

Mr. Whitney, Phoenix page 912 #5217 His Father ' 341 # 1589

Other data from Paula Radwanski (ronrad@pix.net)

'New England Marriages Prior to 1700', Clarence Almon Torrey, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore 1992, p 810.

Children of Henry1 WHITNEY and an unknown spouse were:


+ 2 i. John2 WHITNEY, b. circa 1642; m. Elizabeth SMITH.



Sarah SALMON married Edward KETCHUM. She HISTORY: GenServ Gedcom submission of Marda Suliga <mardas@worldnet.att.net> 'widow of Edward KETCHAM Sarah'; Sarah did have children by her first husband, Edward KETCHAM. *BIR-MARR-DEA: From GenServ submission of Todd Lawrence (no other descendants in record) *'Huntington Court Records', p 23, records that Henry married a widow KETCHAM, possibly Sarah, the widow of Edward KETCHAM, of Stratford, Conn., who died about 1655. *See 'Whitney Family' genealogy, p. 8, which states when discussing Henry WHITNEY's death: 'nor has anything been found to show any facts in the history of either of his wives, except that the second was a Widow KETCHAM, and she was probably the same who survived him'. *Other data from Paula Radwanski (ronrad@pix.net). She was born in 1623 Norwalk, Fairfield, CT. She died after 1673 Norwalk, Fairfield, CT.

There were no children of Henry1 WHITNEY and Sarah SALMON.