History and Government—Congressional Biographies—Delaware

William Gustavus WHITELEY

(1819-1886)

WHITELEY, William Gustavus, a Representative from Delaware; born near Newark, Del., August 7, 1819; attended Bullock’s School at Wilmington, Del., and was graduated from Princeton College in 1838; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1841 and began practice in Wilmington, Del.; prothonotary of New Castle County 1852-1856; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Thirty-fifth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1860; again prothonotary of New Castle County 1862-1867; mayor of Wilmington, Del., 1875-1878; member of commission to settle fishery disputes between New Jersey and Delaware in 1877; census enumerator for Delaware in 1880; associate judge of the superior court of Delaware from March 31, 1884, until his death in Wilmington, Del., April 23, 1886; interment in Bridgeton Cemetery, Bridgeton, N.J.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present