Family:Whitney, Edmund Burke (1815-1884)

Edmund Burke⁸ Whitney (Peter⁷, Peter⁶, Aaron⁵, Moses⁴, Moses³, Richard², John¹), son of Peter⁷ and Jane Lambert (Lincoln) Whitney; born Quincy, Massachusetts, 26 Mar 1815; married 4 Jan 1843, Lydia Augusta Boone; died 28 Jan 1820.

"Edmund Burke Whitney, who died at his residence, Jamaica Plain, was a native of Quincy and son of the Rev. Peter Whitney of that town. Coming to Boston in early life, he spent some years in the gun establishment of William Read & Son, afterward with George H. Gray & County, hardware dealers, subsequently filling in succession the positions of secretary and president of the Franklin Insurance Company. The deceased was universally esteemed by those who met him in all the relations of life for his admirable qualities and character. Mr. Whitney was a man of unblemished character and highest moral convictions. His life, though uneventful, was full of deeds of kindness and affection." Not half enough could ever be said of his loveliness of character and manner to all persons and at all times. He died Feb. 14, 1884; resided Boston and Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Children of Edmund Burke⁸ and Lydia Augusta (Boone) Whitney:

i.

George Edmund9 Whitney, born 3 Feb 1855; died 5 Sep 1864

ii.

Frances A. Whitney, born 10 Oct 1843; married at Jamaica Plain, 8 Feb 1872, Jabez Silas Holmes, from Bristol, Rhode Island, born 30 Oct 1844; died 13 Sep 1884, s.p. She resided 67 Elm St., Jamaica Plain. As a counselor he was known to his clients and to his antagonists by his assiduous achieving industry, his concentrated devotion, his hearty energy in attack, his steady courage under fire. To his professional brethren he had strongly commended himself by his clearness of mental vision, his more of carefully selected and well digested learning and his scrupulous regard for his word. Circumstance had decreed that the larger part of his legal work should be devoted to parents; but very few either of the lawyers or laymen who met him in the United States courts could have guessed that he began his studies profoundly ignorant of every kind of machinery and with something like a native antipathy to investigation in the mechanical arts. With all his noble endowment in intellect Mr. Holmes prime distinction was after all, in his moral quality which was singularly high and fine. Hundreds of persons who had n acquaintance with Mr. Holmes and perhaps did not know his name, have been struck by the singular distinction of his appearance and bearing, in which a certain swift, decisive grace of movement was well matched with the fineness of his sharply cut features, the deep brilliancy of his large gray eyes and the premature beauty of his whitening hair. Top his acquaintances he was most charming, with a charm to which the easy elegance of his manners, the refinement of his tastes, the responsive vivacity and shrewdness of his talk alive contributed.

References

• All data imported from Frederick Clifton Pierce, The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, (Chicago: 1895), pp. 482-483.

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