WHITFIELD, Henry, clergyman, born in England in 1597; died in Winchester, England, after 1651. His father, an eminent lawyer, had destined him for the same profession, and after leaving the university he was entered at the Inns of court, but he subsequently took orders and was minister of Ockham, Surrey, where he also maintained another clergyman out of his private income, that he might devote himself to missionary labors in the adjacent country. He was much beloved by the Nonconformists, whom he protected from persecution, and finally, after twenty years in the established church, he publicly joined them, and resigned his charge on being prosecuted for a refusal to read the "Book of Lawful Sunday Sports." Disposing of his personal estate, he came to this country with Governor Theophilus Eaton in 1637, accompanied by many of his former parishioners, and began the settlement of Guilford, Connecticut, the site of which he purchased from the Indians. The place was named for Guilford in Surrey, the native place of many of the colonists. In 1650 he returned to England, and, says Cotton Mather, "at the time of parting, the whole town accompanied him unto the water-side with a springtide of tears." On his return he became pastor at Winchester, England, where he probably remained until his death. Mr. Whitfield's residence in Guilford, known as the "old stone house," is shown in the illustration. It was built about 1639 to serve both as a dwelling and a fortification. According to tradition, the stone of which it is built was brought by Indians on hand-barrows across a swamp from Griswold's lodge, about eighty rods distant. The walls are three feet thick. The house was kept in its original form till 1868, when it underwent considerable renovation. Whitfield was the author of "Helps to stir up to Christian Duties" (London, 1634); "The Light appearing more and more toward the Perfect Day, or a Farther Discovery of the Present State of the Indians in New England " (1651); and "Strength out of Weakness, or a Glorious Manifestation of the Further Progresse of the Gospel among the Indians in New England" (1652). The last two works were reissued in Joseph Sabin's reprints (New York, 1865).