File Folder 4 - Letters to his sister Sarah

John William Whittaker was born in Bradford in 1791. He was admitted to St John's College in 1810, taking his BA in 1814 and gaining an MA in 1817. He was a Fellow of the College from 1814-26. In 1821 he was appointed examining chaplain to Charles Manners-Sutton, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was subsequently made Vicar of Blackburn from 1822 to 1854. His learning was wide, taking in philology, geology and astronomy, and he was involved in the formation of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820. He wrote a number of important theological studies, including 'An Historical and Critical Inquiry into the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, with Remarks on Mr Bellamy's New Translation,' published in 1819, which brought him to the notice of the archbishop. He married Mary Haughton Feilden in 1825 and together they had eleven children. He died at Blackburn in 1854.