Henry Whiting (burgess)

Gloucester County voters elected Henry Whiting to the General Assembly (later known as the House of Burgesses) in 1682, and he soon caused consternation for advocating a temporary session of tobacco planting (fertilization then being rare and tobacco using many nutrients, hence repeated plantings in the same area led to stunted crops). Although he was temporarily stripped of his military and civil offices (as major of the local militia and justice of the peace), Whiting won re-election to the Assembly in 1684.^[3] He was appointed to the Council of State (otherwise known as the Governor's Council, essentially the upper house of the General Assembly) in 1691 and served until his death in 1694.^[4][5]

His son Henry (Jr.) followed his career path as a planter and also won election as the Gloucester County sheriff. His daughter Catherine married John Washington (1692–1746), who had inherited 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) in Gloucester County from his maternal grandfather Augustine Warner (who had represented Gloucester County as a burgess and as speaker of the assembly), and built a home Highgate on the Piankatank River in Gloucester County.^[6] Their son (this man's grandson) Warner Washington (1722–1790) would become a friend of his cousin George Washington, move westward to Frederick County in 1770 and establish a farm Fairfield, as well as hold local offices in Gloucester and Frederick Counties.^[7]