Captain John Whipple (1625-1683)

The only son of John Whipple (1596-1669) and Susanna Stacey (ca. 1620-61), John Whipple’s father arrived in Ipswich some time between 1636 and 1638. The family came from Bocking, in Essex, England, where they had been prominent textile merchants.

John Whipple served as Cornet of the Ipswich Troop in 1668, under Captain John Appleton. At the outbreak of King Philip’s War, he was “early in the field” as a lieutenant in Captain Paige’s troop. Fresh troops and horses were ordered in 1675-6 to “repel the Indian foe,” and Whipple was appointed Captain of the new unit. In 1677, he led his troops into battle at Salisbury, Massachusetts.

That same year, 1677, Captain Whipple began construction on a handsome town house near the center of town and his many business interests. Today, his home, the Whipple House, is owned by the Ipswich Historical Society.

Captain Whipple married first Martha Reyner, the daughter of Humphrey and Mary Reyner of Rowley; she died in 1679 or 1680. For his second wife, Whipple married Elizabeth Paine. His eldest son, John, was born in 1657; Matthew arrived a bit later; Joseph was born in 1664, but died the following year; another Joseph was born in 1666; a daughter, Susanna, was born in 1683 and married John Lane of Billerica; and another daughter, Sarah, in 1671.

The Ipswich historian Rev. Thomas Franklin Waters refers to Captain Whipple as “distinctly a man of business.” In 1662, Whipple received a license to “still strong water,” renewing his license until he built a malt house in 1667. In 1673, Whipple established lucrative “fulling mills” at Little Falls on the Ipswich River to process cloth.

In 1674, Whipple was a Representative to the General Court, serving until 1680 and again in 1682 and 1683. He was a “Feoffee” of the grammar school, a select group of prominent citizens who funded Ipswich’s public school (and still do today). He was chosen Treaurer of Essex County in 1683, but died soon after, one of the richest men in Ipswich. He left the family home to his son John.

Source: Thomas Franklin Waters, The John Whipple House in Ipswich, Mass. and the People who have Owned and Lived in It (Ipswich Historical Society,1915).