Alexander Whitaker

Background

Born in Cambridge, he was the son of William Whitaker (1548–1595), noted Protestant scholar and Master of Saint John"s College, Cambridge.

Education

Whitaker was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and became a clergyman in the North of England.

Career

She took the baptismal name "Rebecca". The most famous of these sermons is Good Newes from Virginia (1613), in which he describes the native population as "servants of sinne and slaves of the divill," but also recognizes them as "sons of Adam," who are "a very understanding generation, quicke of apprehension, suddaine in their despatches, subtile in their dealings, exquisite in their inventions, and industrious in their labour."

Before leaving England, Whitaker had crossed paths with a York merchant who later became an English naval captain and explorer of New England, Christopher Levett of New York In Whitaker"s will of 1610, and proved following his death in 1616, Whitaker noted that he owed "Christopher Levite, a linen draper of the city of York" just over £5.

Trained as a York merchant, Levett later founded the first settlement at Portland, Maine, where he was granted 6,000 acres (24 km2) by the King.

The settlement failed. Whitaker drowned in 1617 while crossing the James River.

Achievements

• His relative tolerance of the Native American population that English colonists encountered can be found in his sermons, some of which were sent back to England to help win support for the new colonies in North America.

Connections

Father:

William Whitaker

Mother:

Elizabeth (Culverwell) Whitaker