Introduction

Biography

Son of H. R. Whyte­head, rec­tor of Crayke, Tho­mas was edu­cat­ed at Be­ver­ley Gram­mar School and St. John’s Col­lege, Cam­bridge (BA 1837). He won the Chan­cel­lor’s me­dal for Eng­lish Verse twice, the Hul­se­an prize in 1835, and oth­er awards.

He was al­so twen­ty-se­cond sen­ior op­ti­me in the Ma­the­ma­ti­cal Tri­pos, se­cond in the first class in the Class­ic­al Tri­pos, and Foun­da­tion Fel­low of his col­lege in 1837.

In 1838, Whyte­head was class­ic­al lec­tur­er at Clare Col­lege, but took Ho­ly Orders the next year and left the uni­ver­si­ty for the cu­ra­cy of Fresh­wa­ter, Isle of Wight.

In 1841 he be­came chap­lain to Dr. Sel­wyn, Bi­shop elect of New Zea­land, and sailed for that coun­try in 1842. He was ap­point­ed first Prin­ci­pal of the Col­lege which the Bi­shop es­tab­lished in New Zea­land, but due to an an­eur­ysm short­ly af­ter land­ing in New South Wales, he ne­ver held a po­si­tion in New Zea­land.

The lit­tle time and strength he had left, he spent cor­rect­ing the Ma­ori trans­la­tion of the Bi­ble and Pray­er Book.

Works

• Poems (Riv­ing­tons, 1842)
• College Life, pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in 1845