Family and Education

b. 12 Feb. 1599, 1st s. of John Whitmore of Ludstone by Frances, da. of William Billingsley of Astley, Salop. educ. New Inn Hall and Wadham, Oxf. 1617; M. Temple 1620, called 1626 m. Anne, da. of Thomas Corbet of Longnor, Salop, s.p.

Offices Held

Bencher, M. Temple 1648, freeman, Bridgnorth 1655, recorder 1655-76; j.p. Salop 1656-d.; freeman, Wenlock 1658, recorder by Apr. 1660-?d.; commr. for oyer and terminer, Oxford circuit July 1660, Salop 1662, assessment, Salop Aug. 1660-d., corporations 1662-3, recusants 1675.

Biography

Whitmore came from a cadet branch established at Ludstone in Elizabethan times. His father built Ludstone Hall in 1607. Whitmore himself, a practising lawyer, was royalist in sympathy like the rest of the family during the Civil War. In 1646 he was assessed at £300, later reduced to £60, by the committee for the advance of money, which considered him a delinquent as recorder of Bridgnorth, and became a justice of the peace under the Protectorate. Whitmore was returned to Richard Cromwell’s Parliament and the Convention for Wenlock as a stop-gap for the Cavalier Welds. In 1660 he was named to only three committees, including that on the bill for endowing vicarages out of rectories impropriate. Whitmore was listed among the proposed knights of the Royal Oak, with an annual income estimated at £600. He apparently did not stand again, and was buried at Claverley on 30 May 1677.

Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), vi. 282; liv. 192; (ser. 3), ii. 331; Bodl. Ch. Salop 146; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 709.

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: J. S. Crossette

Notes