author
William W. (William Whitwell) Dewhurst
1850–1927
Best known for writing an early history of St. Augustine, he combined a lawyer’s training with a deep interest in Florida’s past. His work helped preserve stories about the nation’s oldest continuously occupied European-founded city.
1 Audiobook
The History of Saint Augustine, Florida
by William W. (William Whitwell) Dewhurst
About the author
William Whitwell Dewhurst was an American writer and lawyer born in 1850. He is best remembered for The History of Saint Augustine, Florida, first published in 1881, a book that traces the city’s colonial beginnings and highlights places, events, and local traditions that made St. Augustine distinctive.
According to his memorial record, he studied at Phillips Exeter Academy, entered Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School, and later went to St. Augustine in 1873. There he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and became closely connected with the city whose history he would later chronicle.
Dewhurst’s writing still attracts readers interested in early Florida and local history. Even now, his best-known book remains one of the classic older accounts of St. Augustine and a useful window into how the city’s past was understood in the late nineteenth century.