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Note: some of the following family data to Rev, Ezra Stiles (children of Theophilus and Elizabeth).
Robert Theophilus Whaley first came to Virginia when he was about 19 years old. He was a Captain in the Indian Wars. When war broke out in England he returned and became an officer in the Parliamentry Army. he was a Lieutenant in Hacker's Regiment. Hacker commanded at the execution os Charles I and was himself executed for it. About 1660, after the Restoration, Robert Theophilus Whaley fled England and revisited Virginia where he married young Elizabeth Mills. Here he had three children: Martha, Lydia and Samuel. He lived here by fishing, weaving, teaching, writing deeds and other papers for his neighbors. Also, he received remittances from England. Hutchinson in his History of Massachusetts says that the regicides "lived upon remittances annually sent them from England." Colonel Francis Willet of Saunderstowwn told Dr. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale from 1778-1795, that "annually Mr.Sewell and other gentlemen of Boston, came to the house of my father who would send me, a young boy, to fetch Mr. Whalley. The gentlemen received him with great ardor and much respect, and they conferred with him privately. After their visits, Mr. Whalley would have plenty of money." "During Queen's War," Willet said, "a ship of war anchored opposite the farm where Whalley lived and its Captain Whailey or Whale (a cousin) made him a visit. They recognized each other with the affection of kindred. The Captain invited him on board, but Whalley neglected to go for fear it was a snare laid to take him."
Theophilus Whaley lived at the north end of Petraquamscutt Pond. In 1710, after he had lived here for 30 years, 120 acres of land in East (now West) Greenwich were conveyed to him. The next year in February 171i, he and his wife conveyed this land to their son, Samuel, "for love." Samuel, preferring to live in North Kingston, transferred the property about 1713 to his sister Martha's husband, Joseph Hopkins. Two years later, about 1715, Mrs. Theophilus died and Mr. Whalley went to live with his daughter Martha Hopkins, on this same property, known as Hopkins Hill. It is located on the southweat side of Carr's Pond in West Greenwich, where he died about 1720 at age 103. Martha Hopkins' grandson, Judge Samuel Hopkins, married in 1730, Honor Brown, granddaughter of Beriah and Abigail (Phenix) Brown.
The grave of Theophilus Whaley is near the highway that leads from Washington Factory to the Ten Rod Road near a fence where it can easily be seen from the road. Cole says that "the grave is a very long one lying north and south, with stones but no inscription. e was a tall man over 6 feet tall when 100 years old, and walked upright: not fat, but thin and lathy. In the Providence Evening Bulletin of April 21, 1917, there is a picture of a granite monument, in an iron-enclosed burial ground, marked as follows:
Here as buried Theophilus Whale(y)
The singular good old man
Born in England about 1617
Died on this hill abour 1720
and his wife Elizabeth Mills
of Virginia Their descendants
endure even unto this day
Note: Judge Samuel Hopkins (1727-1795), grandson of Theophilus Whaley, provided
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