Peter Cannon writes that Whipple "is probably a composite portrait of Lovecraft's two learned uncles-in-law and maternal grandfather"; the grandfather's name was Whipple Phillips [REF].
A Huguenot from Caude, near Angers, France, who settled in East Greenwich, Rhode Island in 1686 and moved to Providence in 1696; the Shunned House was built on the site of his family's graveyard.