Background
He was born in Manchester, and studied at Bradford Grammar School before going to Street John"s College, Cambridge.
Archbishop of Canterbury Anglican clergyman
He was born in Manchester, and studied at Bradford Grammar School before going to Street John"s College, Cambridge.
Here he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1814, and proceeded to Master of Arts There were only three churches in the town, and these were poorly attended.
In 1817, Bachelor of Divinity in 1824, and Doctor of Divinity in 1830. He was appointed as examining chaplain to Charles Manners-Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who granted him the living of Blackburn, Lancashire in 1822. Whittaker embarked on a programme of church building.
He also developed education in the town by creating Sunday Schools, and became involved in local politics.
lieutenant was the largest of the 40 churches that Sharpe designed, and the only one to have transepts. Sharpe"s biographer, John Hughes, suggests that the transepts were included at Whittaker"s insistence.
Hughes describes this church as Sharpe"s pièce de résistance. During the time that Whittaker was vicar of Blackburn, the parish church was rebuilt, and twelve new churches were built in and around to town.
In addition to these concerns, Whittaker had wider interests, including philology, geology, and astronomy, and he helped in the formation of the Royal Astronomical Society.
He published a number of papers on religious subjects, some of his sermons, articles to periodicals, and a paper entitled Ancient Etymologies, especially Celtic, to the British Archaeological Association.