Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/478

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446
WHALLEY
WHARTON

defence committee in April, 1861, and was its secretary until the close of the war. Gen. Wetmore began to write for magazines and annuals at the age of seventeen, and was at one time connected with the "New York Mirror." He was a popular speaker, and in 1832 he recited a poem, "Ambition," before a literary society of Hamilton college. He published "Lexington, with other Fugitive Poems" (New York, 1830); "Observations on the War with Mexico " (1847) ; and an edition of the u Poems of James Nack," with a biographical notice (1838).


WHALLEY, Edward, regicide, b. in England about 1620; d. in Hadley, Mass., about 1678. He became a merchant, and at the beginning of the revolution of 1642 joined the parliamentary party, against the wishes of his family, who were royalists. At Naseby, in 1645, his command defeated two divisions of Sir Marmaduke Langdale's cavalry, and for bravery he was made a colonel by parliament. He led the horse at Bristol, Banbury, Worcester, and elsewhere, and was afterward intrusted with the custody of the king's person at Hampton court. He commanded the infantry with Gen. George Monk at Dunbar, where two horses were shot under him, and was afterward left by Cromwell in Scotland with four regiments. He sat in the high court of justice that condemned King Charles, and was a signer of his death-warrant. Afterward, as major-general, he governed five counties, and after sitting in Cromwell's second and third parliaments was given a seat in his house of lords. After the restoration he fled to this country with William Goffe (q. v.), his son-in-law, and shared his fortunes from that time. See “History of Three of the Judges of King Charles I.,” by Ezra Stiles (Hartford, 1794).


WHAREY, James, clergyman, b. in Rutherford county, N. C, 15 June, 1789 ; d. in Goochland county, Va., 29 April, 1842. He entered Hamp- den Sidney college, where he remained for five years, teaching to obtain means to pursue his edu- cation. He was licensed to preach in 1818, and began his ministry in Amherst and Nelson coun- ties, spending a part of his time as principal of an academy. In 1819 he made a missionary tour in Virginia, and afterward he was chaplain of Hamp- den Sidney for a year. In 1822 he held a charge in Cartersville, Va., and in 1824 he was made pas- tor of the churches of Bird and Providence in Goochland county, Va., where he served until his death. He published a series of articles in the " Southern Religious Telegraph " on " Baptism," and " Sketches of Church History from the Birth of Christ to the Nineteenth Century," both of which afterward appeared in book-form. Of the latter a new edition was published (Philadelphia, 1850).


WHARTON, Charles Henry, clergyman, b. in St. Marv's county, Md., 5 June, 1748 ; d. in Bur- lington," N. J., 22 July, 1833. The family planta- tion, called Notley Hall, was presented to his grandfather by Lord Baltimore. In 1760 he was sent to the English Jesuits' college at St. Omer's, where he was very studious, and acquired the Latin tongue with such proficiency as to converse in it. He was ordered deacon in June, 1772, and priest the following September, both in the Roman Catholic church. At the close of the American Revolution he resided at Worcester, Eng- land, as chaplain to the Roman Catholics in that city. There he addressed a poetical epistle to Gen. Washington, with a sketch of his life, which was published for the benefit of American prisoners in England (Annapolis, 1779; London, 1780). He returned to this country in 1783 in the first vessel that sailed after the peace. In May, 1784, having adopted the views of the Church of England, he published his celebrated " Letter to the Roman Catholics of Worcester" (Philadelphia, 1784), and became rector of Immanuel church. New Castle, Del. At the general convention of 1785 he was on the committee to "draft an ecclesiastical constitu- tion for the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States," also on the committee " to prepare a form of prayer and thanksgiving for the Fourth of July," and that to Americanize the "Book of Common Prayer." In 1786 he was elected a mem- ber of the American philosophical society. After ten years' further residence in Delaware, he be- came, in 1798, rector of St. Mary's church, Burling- ton, N. J. In 1801 he accepted the presidency of Co- lumbia college, New York, assuming the position at the commencement ; but he recalled his acceptance and returned to his rectorship in Burlington, which he held till his death in 1833. He was always president of the standing committee of the diocese and a deputy to the general convention, and among the first in scholarship and influence of the clergy of his church in the United States. The testimony of his contemporaries and his numerous publica- tions pronounced him an accomplished divine, a gifted poet, and an able controversialist. At the time of his decease he was the senior presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal church. Besides the works already mentioned, he published "Reply to an Address [by Bishop Carroll] to the Roman Catholics of the United States " (Philadelphia, 1785); "Inquiry into the Proofs of the Divinity of Christ" (1796); and "Concise View of the Prin- cipal Points of Controversy between the Protestant and Roman Churches" (New York, 1817). In 1813-'14 he was co-editor, with Rev. Dr. Aber- crombie, of the " Quarterly Theological Magazine and Religious Repository." His "Remains," with a memoir, were published by Bishop George W. Doane (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1834).


WHARTON, Gabriel Caldwell, soldier, b. in Springfield, Washington co., Ky., 13 June, 1839 ; d. in Louisville, Ky., 22 Feb., 1887. He was the son of a farmer, and was educated at the public schools, the academy of his native town, and the law de- partment of Louisville university. In 1860, at the age of twenty-one, he began the practice of law at Springfield with immediate success. The next year, at the opening of the civil war, he enlisted in the 10th Kentucky infantry in the U. S. volunteer army, and in November was commissioned major of that regiment. With the regiment, Major Wharton shared in the engagements and marches of the Army of the Cumberland, and in March, 1863, was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel. He commanded and bore a gallant part in the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge and the engagements of the Atlanta campaign in 1864, until, at the expiration of his three years' service, he was mustered out. He then resumed his law- practice at Louisville, and in 1866 was appointed assistant U. S. attorney for the district of Ken- tucky. On the appointment of Benjamin II. Bris- tow as secretary of the treasury, Col. Wharton succeeded to the district attorneyship, holding that office for ten years. In 1880 he opened an office in Washington, and, after two years' practice there, spent some time in Mexico in the interest of a rail- road company. Returning, after a year's absence, he resided in New York city, where he soon had a lucrative practice. He was on a visit to Louisville when he died while alone in his room at a hotel.


WHARTON, Jesse, senator, b. in Albemarle county. Va., about 1760; d. in Nashville, Tenn., 22 July, 1833. He was educated in his native state,