Jeremiah Whitaker
1599–1654
Stretton then Bermondsey; frequent committee chair at Westminster.
Biography
Of Sidney Sussex Cambridge — the most Puritan of the Cambridge colleges — then schoolmaster at Oakham and from 1624 rector of Stretton in Rutland. From 1644 he was promoted to St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey in London. A hard-working committee chair at the Assembly — the manuscript minutes show him moderating sessions through long stretches — Whitaker was respected for his careful procedural sense and pastoral gravity. His pastoral preaching style was much admired; his fast sermons The Christians Hope Triumphing (1645) and Eirenopoios (1645) ran through several editions. Died in office at Bermondsey in June 1654.
Principal works
- Eirenopoios (1645)
- The Christians Hope Triumphing (1645)
English Presbyterian divine
The great majority of the sitting members were English parish ministers of Presbyterian conviction. They formed the drafting core of the Assembly, manning its three standing committees and supplying most of the text of the Confession, the two Catechisms, and the Directory for Public Worship.