Background
Alexander Whitaker was born at Cambridge, England. His father was William Whitaker, a noted Puritan divine, master of St. John's College and Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge; his mother was a daughter of Nicholas Culverwell.
Education
Alexander Whitaker received the bachelor's degree at Cambridge in 1604/05 and the master's degree in 1608.
Career
He was ordained to the ministry of the Church of England. Appointed to a living in the North of England, he ministered there for a few years, but soon volunteered to go to the newly established colony of Virginia. He arrived at Jamestown with Sir Thomas Dale in the spring of 1611 and within a short while became minister of two new settlements, Henricopolis and Bermuda Hundreds, some fifty miles up the James River. The "Laws Divine, Moral and Martial" brought over by Dale required the minister to preach twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday, with daily morning and evening prayer. His influence was important in cheering and encouraging the scattered little groups of colonists, and in settling their differences. In this work Whitaker continued, living at "Rock Hall, " opposite Henricopolis, until his death by drowning in March 1616/17. In the early formative years of the colony, the leaders of the London Company, the ministers who came, and the colonists generally were of the Puritan element in the Church of England. Whitaker, who was of the same school of thought as Sir Edwin Sandys and Rev. Richard Buck of Jamestown, in a letter to his relative, Rev. William Gouge, June 18, 1614, wrote: "I much more muse that so few of our English ministers that were so hot against the surplice and subscription come hither where neither are spoken of". His words expressed the attitude of welcome toward Puritan ministers and lay people which characterized Virginia until the later part of the reign of King Charles I, when in strong loyalty to the King laws were enacted forbidding Puritan ministers to enter or remain in the Colony. Whitaker undoubtedly helped to form and strengthen this early attitude, and to establish Virginia's characteristic tradition of low churchmanship. In 1613 a sermon written by him, entitled Good News from Virginia, was published by the London Company; in it he emphasized the importance of supporting the effort to establish the Colony, urged the conversion of the Indians to the Christian religion, and gave a description of the country. This sermon, with a letter to Rev. William Crashaw dated August 9, 1611, a letter to Sir Thomas Smith, treasurer of the Company dated Henrico, July 28, 1612, and the letter to Rev. William Gouge, mentioned above, are his only known writings. Although his ministry in Virginia was very brief, the expressions of commendation by his associates there and by the officials of the London Company reveal the usefulness of his devoted and unselfish life.