The family line of the Whitaker’s of New England begins in the Colonies in the 1660s. Two brothers, Richard and John immigrated from Skipton, England.
The brothers first settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Many ancestors of Richard and John are today living throughout the United States and Canada.

My 5th cousin Bob Whittaker of Rhode Island and I teamed up over two decades ago to begin our family research. Much help early on was given by Emery DeBeck of Franklin, Maine. Along with many others sharing bits of useful information over the years.

One family member that had yielded little information over the years is William Whitaker. William is Bob Whittaker and my 5th Great Grandfather. We devoted many hours over the decades trying to establish where William was born and who where his mother and father. And to date have not discovered the facts sought. This brick wall we were up against was due partly to the rural area that William settled in. There were few records produced and of course the occasional building fire. Due to this gap in the family line Bob and I decided the only way to prove or disprove that we are part of the Rehoboth Whitaker bloodline is to do a YDNA test with Family Tree DNA. Bob and I are proven on paper descendants of Elisha Whitaker of Trenton, Maine,(William’s son). Our YDNA matched perfectly showing we share Elisha as a 4th Great Grandfather. Now on to seeing we are part of Rehoboth Whitaker’s? Three male Genealogy friends that are proven descendants of John Whitaker(2) and Richard Whitaker(1). We’re asked to complete the YDNA test.
There results showed that we all share, at different generations, a common Whitaker ancestral Grandfather from both John and Richard.

William appears in Gouldsboro, Maine in the 1760s. William marries Susanna Guptill 9 September, 1770, Gouldsboro, Maine. They have 3 children, Sara, Elisha, and George. There are no records of Elisha’s birth; there is a record of Sara’s birth date but no parents and a record for George’s birth. William is the first and only Whitaker that appears in the Gouldsboro area during this time frame, so it is safe to believe that William and Susanna had these children.

Now to set the conditions of the Downeast coast of Maine in the 1760s, It must be known that before 1760 the land was a wild frontier. The Abenaki Nation was constantly engage in civil war. The French engaged in a thirty-six year war with the Indians. By the early 1760s a temporary armed truce was called.

The first comers built their cabins along the shores where a stream furnished water and power, and upon the hillsides that were suitable for farm lands, when cleared. The home life was bleak and hard, the children had no toys and story-books, and all went to work very young. It was an outdoor life, in the fresh air, close to nature, telling the time of day by the sun. The struggle for a livelihood was a struggle with nature and not with other pioneer settlers.

William Whitaker lived in interesting times. While a young man married with children in Gouldsboro, Maine  the American Revolutionary War began.

William Whitaker joined the Colonial Militia for three different military expeditions, 1st. 1775 the Defense of Frenchman’s Bay under Captain Crabtree. 2nd. 1777, William was a sergeant under Captain Dyer, for the campaign against the British at St. John’s Nova Scotia. 3rd. 1779, william served under Captain John Hall’s Company for an attack on the British fort at the Majabigwaduce peninsula,(now Castine). Later this confrontation was known as “The Penobscot Expedition”. Now it must be noted that all people living in Maine,(Massachusetts then), we’re not all in favor of parting from England and King George 111. There was a number of strong Loyalist pockets scattered long the Maine coast.