This book chronicles the life of William Whipple who was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1652, and moved with his father, Captain John Whipple, to Providence Rhode Island in 1659. The thirteen member Captain John Whipple family was prominent in New England history for over 250 years. His daughter's grandson was Stephen Hopkins, governor of Rhode Island and signer of the Declaration of Independence. The line of his second son, Samuel, produced Abraham Whipple, Commodore of the Continental Navy. The social history of these and other families who married into the Whipple family are offered. The antecedents of some of these families are tracked back to the fourteenth century.

The William Whipple family lived in northern Rhode Island for the first four generations. His two children married into the prominent Sprague family whose lines produced two Rhode Island governors. William Whipple Junior married Elizabeth Sprague whose great grandfather was Richard Warren, a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. William junior's son Eleazer married Anna Brown, whose ancestor was the Reverend Roger Williams, putative founder of the Baptisit denomination in the United States. Eleazer and Anna's youngest son Jesse, an important manufacturer of lime products, moved to the state of Indiana in the early 1800s to further his business enterprises. Jesse's wife was a member of the Adam's line of descent remembered for producing two American presidents.

The lineage of Jabez Whipple, eldest of this family, is carried through in this book. Biographies of his 11 children are offered, with special emphases given to social histories of Oscar F. and William T. Whipple and their descendants to the present day.