George Whitmore (haberdasher)

Sir George Whitmore (died 12 December 1654) was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1631.[1][2] He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

Whitmore was the third son of William Whitmore (d. 1593), citizen and Haberdasher of London, lessee of Balmes Manor in Hackney and owner of Apley Hall in Shropshire.[3] His mother Anne (died 1615[4]), a benefactor of the Haberdashers' Company, was the daughter of William Bonde, Haberdasher, Sheriff of London in 1567-68, and alderman of London from 1567 to 1576.[5] William Bonde died in 1576.[6][7] George was the younger brother of Sir William Whitmore of Apley, Shropshire, and they were brothers-in-law of Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor in 1611.

George Whitmore was a city of London merchant and a member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. On 2 June 1621 he was elected an alderman of the City of London for Farringdon Within ward. He was Sheriff of London from 1621 to 1622 and Master of the Haberdashers Company for the first time in the same year: he transferred as alderman to the Langbourn ward in 1626.

In 1624 the theologian Thomas Gataker (1574-1654) published a volume Iacobs Thankfulnesse to God, for Gods Goodness to Iacob, dedicated jointly to Sir William and to Mr George Whitmore, opening his address by stating that their mother had presented him and spoken for him at baptism, as his godmother. He goes on to say that she continued to support him, making bequests to him in her will. His texts, which concern the promise that God will advance the temporal affairs of those who attend to the spiritual, are, he says, "to egge you on, whom God hath blessed with so large a portion of his bounty, unto those religious offices, that by occasion of Iacobs example, men of your rancke are therein encited unto, whether risen from meane estate, as with him here it had beene, or from the first largely and liberally endowed, as your selves". His texts are an expansion of a lecture formerly delivered to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers when one of them, as Master of the Company, proposed his name to address them. He develops his theme to explore differences between their own theology and that of the Romanists.[8]

In 1631, he was elected Lord Mayor of London. Thomas Heywood published an account of all the pageants and triumphs which attended his inauguration, and in his dedicatory letter wrote: "...of you it may be undeniably spoken: that none ever in your place was more sufficient or able, any cause whatsoever shall be brought before you, more truly to discerne; being apprehended more aduisedly to dispose, being digested, more maturely to despatch."[9]

He was Master of the Haberdashers Company again from 1631 to 1632. He was knighted on 27 May 1632. From 1632 to 1642 he was president of Bethlem and Bridewell.[10] He was a strong supporter of the King in the Civil War, and was imprisoned by the Parliamentarians as a 'delinquent'. In 1641, he received King Charles I at Balmes Manor, which had been purchased for him in 1634 by his elder brother Sir William Whitmore of Apley,[11] High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1620.[12]

Family

Sir George Whitmore married Mary, daughter and heir of Reginald Copcott.[13][14] Their children were:[13]

• Charles Whitmore, inherited the manor of Ottringham, Yorkshire
• George Whitmore
• William Whitmore, of Balmes, Hackney, married Frances.[15]
• Elizabeth Whitmore, married Sir John Weld (died 1681) of Willey, Shropshire. Her daughter married Richard Whitmore, jnr, of Lower Slaughter.
• Anne Whitmore, married Sir John Robinson, Lord Mayor of London in 1662.
• Margaret Whitmore, married Sir Charles Kemeys, 2nd Baronet, of Cefn Mably.[16]
• Mary Whitmore, baptized 1615

References

1. E.I. Carlyle, 'Whitmore, Sir George (died 1654)', Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900), vol. 61.
2. D.W. Hollis III, 'Whitmore, Sir George (b. after 1572, d. 1654)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).
3. 'Anno 36 Elizabeth (1593): William Whitmore (William), haberdasher', in R.R. Sharpe (ed.), Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Husting, London, Part 2: 1358-1688 (London 1890), pp. 713-725 (British History Online).
4. Will of Anne Bond, widow of London (P.C.C. 1615, Rudd quire).
5. A.B. Beaven, The Aldermen of the City London, temp. Henry III.-1908, 2 vols (The City Corporation, London 1913), II, p. 38 (Internet Archive).
6. Will of William Bonde, Alderman of London (P.C.C. 1576, Carew quire).
7. 'Whitmore of Apley Park', in The Visitation of Shropshire, Taken in the Year 1623, Harleian Society XXVIII-XXIX (1888-1889), II, pp. 499-500 (Internet Archive).
8. T. Gataker, Iacobs thankfulnesse to God, for Gods goodnesse to Iacob A meditation on Genesis 32. 10. Wherein by the way also the popish doctrine of mans merite is discussed, (Iohn Haviland for Fulke Clifton, London 1624). Full text at Umich/eebo (open).
9. T. Heywood, London Ius Honorarium, Exprest in sundry triumphs, pagiants, and shewes: at the initiation or entrance of the Right Honourable George Whitmore, into the Maioralty of the famous and farre renouned city of London. All the charge and expence of the laborious proiects, and obiects both by water and land, being the sole vndertaking of the Right Worshipfull, the Society of the Habburdashers (Nicholas Okes, London 1631). Full text at Umich/eebo (open).
10. Beaven, Aldermen of London, II, p. 55 and p. 178 (Internet Archive). See also Chronological list of aldermen: 1601-1650 and Notes on the Aldermen (British History Online).
11. A. Thrush and S. Healey, 'Whitmore, William (1573-1648), of Apley Park, Salop.', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629 (Cambridge University Press 2010), History of Parliament Online.
12. History of the County of Middlesex, Vol.10: Hackney (V.C.H. 1995), pp. 75-91.
13. W.H. Whitmore, Notes on the Manor and Family of Whitmore (Private circulation, Boston 1856), p. 9 (Hathi Trust).
14. Carlyle (Old DNB) makes Mary the daughter of Richard Daniell of Truro.
15. A lawsuit of 1686, involving massive debts, recites many of the relationships in this and the succeeding generation. The National Archives (UK), Chancery Final Decrees, ref C 78/1605 no. 2, Whitmore v Shenton: View originals at AALT, img 0667 to 0707.
16. J.P. Ferris, 'Kemys, Sir Charles, 3rd Bt. (1651-1702), of Cefn Mabli, Glam.; Llanfair Discoed, Mon. and Denmark Street, St. Giles in the Fields, Mdx.', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament.