[1] As a child, Whelpley was described as "large for one of his age; was fond of sport, and averse to labour; was rash and reckless from the strength of his feelings, but chargeable with no vice; was awkward and ungainly in his appearance; but when he got hold of a book, he devoured it with the utmost avidity".
[1] Whelpley studied Theology under Dr. Stephen West, became a Baptist preacher, and on June 21, 1792, was ordained pastor of the congregation where his father was deacon.
[1] Around 1798, he moved from Green River to Morristown, New Jersey, where he took charge of an academy, "gaining an increasing reputation as both a preacher and an academic instructor".
[2] The Triangle was deemed "a work of no inconsiderable power; but it met the severest condemnation on the one hand, while it was received with the highest praise on the other".
Whelpley's fragile health became increasingly burdensome over the course of his life, and in the end he "languished for some time in a state of great debility", and died at the age of 51.