Willis married an English Quaker, Mary Caroline Braithwaite on December 1885. They met three years before, when the Whitney family had visited London, on their way returning to Japan from the USA. In London, unfortunately, his father William Cogswell Whitney died from illness, and was buried. Eight months later, he and his little sisters lost their dearest mother Anna in Tokyo. Willis wrote on his journal:
24th [April 1883]. Just a week ago our dear Mother passed away. What an eventful week! It seems hardly possible that she is not with us ― yet when I go upstairs and see the empty quiet room then do I begin to realize the fact and too when I wand advice. ― she is not there. Oh may I come to ask Jesus as I used to ask her. We have been talking today about asking Miss Braithwaite to come out here and take Mother's place. Mother loved her so ― and once said that in case she were called away it would be best for me to ask Miss B. to come ― in fact she enjoined it upon me, knowing my feelings towards her. [ Remi:1933, p.38 ]
Reminiscences:1933 also stated that:
Willis's financial prospects were too uncertain to warrant an engagement, but after three years of medical work and his appointment as Interpreter to the United States Legation in Tokyo, he felt justified in claiming her as his bride [Remi:1933, p.43].
Willis went to London to marry her, and brought her back to Tokyo on February 1886. Mary became his faithful wife, as well as the Bible woman and nurse of Akasaka Hospital.
The following book gives information about their marriage and seven children.
 |
|
Robert Seymour Benson,
Photographic pedigree of the descendants of Isaac and Rachel Wilson,
Middlebrough: W. Appleyard, 1912.
https://archive.org/stream/photographicpedi00bens#page/384/mode/2up
p.384.
IND. No. II F 8 d.
MARY CAROLINE BRAITHWAITE = Dr. WILLIS NORTON WHITNEY.
Mary Caroline Braithwaite, born at 65 Mornington Road. London, on 4th April, 1857. Married at Meeting House, Holloway, London, on 29th December, 1885, Dr. Willis Norton Whitney, M. D., Member of U.S. Legation at Tokio, Japan, son of William C. Whitney and his wife Anna L. Whitney. He was born at Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A., on 18th October, 1855.
Address: 17 Hikawa Cho, Akasaka, Tokio, Japan.
Issue — Six sons and one daughter.
(I) Willis Bevan Whitney, born at Tokio. Japan, 21st March, 1888.
(II) John Norton Whitney, born at Tokio, Japan, 19th March, 1889, and died on 26th Novmber, 1889.
(III) Isaac Braithwaite Whitney, born at Tokio, Japan, 19th March, 1889, and died at sea on 21st February, 1890.
(IV) George Gillett Whitney, born at Tokio, Japan, 27th December, 1890.
(V) Joseph Rankin Whitney, born at Tokio, Japan, 15th July, 1893.
(VI) Anna Braithwaite Whitney, born at Tokio, Japan, 30th November, 1894.
(VII) Charles Lloyd Whitney, born at Tokio, Japan, 23rd February, 1898.
I am adding announcements of their marriage on 29 December 1885, from a monthly Quaker Journal
The British Friend, and
The Lancet.
Mary Caroline was the third daughter of a Quaker minister, Joseph Bevan Braithwaite (1818-1905). According to the
DNB (http://archive.today/pXGUt), the Braithwaite family lived 65 Mornington Road, Regent's Park from 1851 to 1861, then moved to 312 Camden Road, near the Holloway Meeting House at Mercers Road, Islington N19. Sadly, the place where Willis and Mary got married, ceased to be used as a place of meeting for religious worship in 1938 [
The London Gazette, 22 July 1938, p.4758].
An announcement of their first-born, on The British Friend in 1888.
Twin sons were born in Tokyo, and passed away, one in the USA, one at the sea.
[Source]
The British Friend : Google Books http://books.google.co.jp/
The Lancet: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101074831064;view=1up;seq=55
Mary Caroline's sister, Anne Braithwaite Thomas wrote how the baby John Norton had died at her home in Baltimore, in a memoir of her husband,
Richard H. Thomas, M. D.: Life and Letters [pp.230-31], published in 1905. John sleeps in
Loudon Park Cemetery.
See https://archive.org/stream/richardhthomasm03thomgoog#page/n266/mode/2up
The Braithwaites and the Whitneys had much concern with Baltimore, Maryland, USA. I'll wrote later about that.
Images are cut out and processed by the editor.
Thanks for the those prepared the original data on the net.
Last updated 25 Jan. 2015
