The register of the Merchant Taylors’ school in London shows Richard Whitlock enrolled in this school in 1603.[4] Richard’s first cousin Sir James Whitlock (1570-1632) was also educated at the Merchant Taylors’ school, writing in his history of the Whitlock family entitled Liber Famelicus,[5]

I was brought up at school under mr. Mulcaster, in the famous school of the Marchantaylors in London, whear I continued untill I was well instructed in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongs.

London Mercantile Career Begins

It appears that Richard had probably launched his career as a merchant in London by 1613 when the estate of William Morse of St. Peter le Poer parish shows Rd. Whitlocke as a creditor of Morse.[6] Note the reference to St. Peter le Poer parish, in which Richard Whitlock and Katherine Burchett’s son Richard (1616-1666) was baptized on 17 November 1616.

On 12 November 1615 at St. Andrew Holborn church in London, Richard Whitlock married Katherine Burchett (this is the spelling of her surname in the marriage record), daughter of David and Katherine Burchett of Wye in County Kent.[7] The parish register of St. Gregory and St. Martin church at Wye shows David’s wife Katherine being buried in that parish on 29 May 1627.

Records of Richard Whitlock’s Life in London

By the time of his marriage, Richard definitely had set himself up as a merchant in London, since an 11 April 1616 record of a General Sessions held at Westminster states that Richard Whitlocke of London, merchant, was a prosecutor in a cause heard on that date in which Elizabeth Willett of Limehouse was accused of stealing five barrels of tar from William Palmer, a ropemaker of Limehouse.[8] Palmer, with wife Mary and Richard Whitlock and David Parry, accused Elizabeth Willett of the theft. She was acquitted. It’s possible, I think, that William Palmer was related to a Richard Palmer of Kings Inn in County Middlesex who is named as a “loveing friend” in the 24 February 1646 will of Richard Whitlock’s wife Katherine Burchett.[9] As a previous posting notes, Katherine made Richard Palmer one of her legatees, and also named him along with her sons Robert and John and her son-in-law Thomas Jordan as a trustee of a legacy she left to her oldest son Richard (1616-1666), which was to be paid to him, and in the case of his death his heirs, on a yearly basis by these trustees.

The “Schedule of the writings relating to the Manor of Beaches” cited in a previous posting, a listing and partial transcript of documents about the Whitlock manor Beches held by the Berkshire Record Office, lists a 10 June 1617 indenture whereby William Whitlock mortgaged Beches to his brother Richard and others.[10] As the oldest son of the family, William had inherited Beches by the will of his father John Whitlock.[11] William appears eventually to have defaulted on this mortgage, and in this way, the Beches manor passed into the possession of Richard Whitock (abt. 1583 – 1642), and from him to his son Richard (1616-1666), who deeded it in 1644 to his brother Robert, as we’ve seen.

The 18 June 1632 will of Anthony Haviland, a merchant of St. Benet Fink parish in London, named William and John Dobbyns as well as Richard Whitlock executors of Haviland’s estate, and Richard Whitlock proved the will on 6 July 1632 along with William and John Dobbyns.[12] The burial register of St. Benet Fink shows Haviland being buried there on 28 June 1632. St. Benet Fink and St. Peter le Poer parishes were combined in 1842.

The Calendar of State Papers for 1633 contains a petition that appears to be dated in April (?) of that year, showing Richard Whitlock and many other London merchants petitioning the king to uphold William Frizell and Thomas Witherings as postmasters, at a time in which others living in London and identified as “strangers” had chosen an alternative postmaster.[13]

Richard Whitlock’s Will

Richard Whitlock made his will 15 August 1642 in London.[14] The will identifies Richard as a citizen and merchant of London. As has been previously noted, it bequeaths the family manor of Beches in Berkshire to Richard’s oldest son Richard (1616-1666), along with other real property pertaining to the manor. The will names Richard’s wife Katherine and their children Richard, Robert, John, and Katherine, and names a number of other family members including Richard’s brother Thomas Whitlock, sisters Jane Barber, Rachel Couley, and Margery Whitlock, as well as Richard’s Aunt Wood and a number of nieces and nephews. As Peter Whitlock notes, the will also mentions Doctor Holdsworth, who is Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), rector of St. Peter le Poer parish and Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from 1637-1643, where he was succeeded by Anthony Tuckney, whose daughter Mary married Richard’s son John in 1652.[15]

Richard Whitlock’s will was probated 11 November 1642. The burial register of St. Peter le Poer church in London shows Richard buried at that church on 5 November 1642.[16]

Katherine Burchett Whitlock

Richard was survived by his wife Katherine Burchett Whitlock, who continued living in London while maintaining a house in Wokingham in which she spent summers.[17] Katherine made her will in London on 24 February 1648.[18] The will identifies Katherine as a widow of London, whose deceased husband was Mr. Richard Whitlock, and names her children Richard, Robert, John, and Katherine, with husband Thomas Jordan. As has been previously discussed, evidently not trusting the business acumen of her son Richard (1616-1666), Katherine left Richard £400 in trust to be paid annually to him and, in case of his demise, to his heirs, with Katherine’s sons Robert and John and son-in-law Thomas Jordan and friend Richard Palmer managing the trust. The will was probated 20 April 1649.

Katherine Burchett Whitlock died 2 April 1649 and is buried at All Saints church, Leighton Buzzard, in Bedfordshire, where a brass plaque on the north chancel wall gives her date of death and states that she is buried nearby, and was the widow of Richard Whitlock, a London merchant.[19] The reason Katherine was buried at Leighton Buzzard is that her son John Whitlock (1625-1708) began preaching at the Leighton Buzzard church in November 1645, continuing there up to 1649 and sharing the appointment with his lifelong friend and fellow graduate of Emanuel College, Cambridge, William Reynolds.[20] From the spring of 1648, John and William shared pastoral appointments at both Leighton Buzzard and Aylesbury, being ejected from these livings in 1649 when they refused the “Engagement,” the oath of loyalty to the Commonwealth following the beheading of Charles I, and went to Nottinghamshire together to pastor a church there.

In 1664, Richard Whitlock’s son Robert requested and was granted a coat of arms for the Whitlock family of Wokingham. The lineage chart accompanying it names Robert’s parents Richard Whitlock and Katherine or Catherine, whose father is given as John at one point in this document and as David Burchet of Wye in Kent at another place in the document.

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[1] Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 11/74, pp. 169-171. Note that Holt House is described in the will of Richard Whitlock (abt. 1583 – 1642) as he willed property to his oldest son Richard (1616-1666) as Richard’s “Capitol messuage,” and was left to his son Richard, who then deeded it along with Beches manor to his brother Robert: Prerogative Court of Canterbury 11/190, pp. 294-5.

[2] See infra the photo of this monument taken by Basher Eyre and found at the Geograph Britain and Ireland website. The plaque is noted in History of the County of Bedford, vol. 3 (London: Victoria County History, London, 1912), p. 411, which states, “On the north chancel wall is a monument to the Sclater family, 1690, and a brass slab to Katherine wife of Richard Whitlock, died 1649.”

[3] See “Wye, Kent Baptisms 1551-1600,” at the Hastingleigh, Kent website; and FamilySearch database, England, Kent, Canterbury Parish Registers, 1538-1986, citing the original record in Canterbury Cathedral Archives.

[4] Merchant Taylors’ School Register, 1561-1934, vol. 1, ed. Grace Gilford Hart (London: Merchant Taylors’ Company, 1936): see Peter Whitlock’s notes from the Guildhall in London archived at Whitlock Family One-Name Study website, p. 20.

[5] James Whitlocke, Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitlocke, etc., ed. John Bruce (London: Camden Society, 1858), p. 12.

[6] Index to Acts of Administration in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1609 – 1619 (Acts of Administration), vol. 5 (London: British Record Society, 1968), p. 98.

[7] The marriage is listed in the parish register of St. Andrew Holborn church, in the collection Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812 held by London Metropolitan Archives, and available digitally in Ancestry’s database London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812. A digital image of the record is also found in the Certificate files at the Whitlock Family One-Name Study, file 4134. In an article entitled “Richard Whitlock (1616-1666),” Whitlock Family Newsletter 37,3 (September 2018), p. 3., Peter Whitlock states that Katherine Burchett was the daughter of David Burchett in Kent.

[8] County of Middlesex. Calendar To the Sessions Records: New Series, vol. 3: 1615-16, ed. William Le Hardy (London, 1937), p. 221; this work is digitized at the British History Online website.

[9] Prerogative Court of Canterbury 11/207, pp. 320-1.

[10] A listing of this indenture is found in a collection of documents entitled “Schedule of the writings relating to the Manor of Beaches and the other estates which were purchased by Mr. Richard Hawe of the family of the Whitlocks.” A catalogue and transcript of these documents is filed in the References section of the Whitlock Family One-Name Study website, file X0535, “Schedule of documents relating to Manor of Beaches, Wokingham, Berkshire 1617-1698 from Jim Whitelock.” According to Rosemary Lea in an article entitled “The Holt Estate and Its Owners — Part 1” which is archived in the References section of the Whitlock Family One-Name Study, file R3097, this schedule of documents is found in the Berkshire Record Office, and was compiled about 1760. Lea states that the documents themselves are missing, but the listing and partial transcript of them held by the Record Office are extant. Lea’s article was evidently published somewhere, but there is no indication of its source at the Whitlock Family One-Name Study site.

[11] See supra, n. 1.

[12] Prerogative Court of Canterbury 11/162, pp. 133-140.

[13] Calendar of State Papers: Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty’s Public Record Office. 1633 – 1634, vol. 6, ed. John Bruce (London: Longman, Green, 1863), p. 39.

[14] Prerogative Court of Canterbury 11/190, pp. 294-5. A transcription of the will by Peter Whitlock is at “Will of Richard Whitlock 1642,” Whitlock Family Newsletter 33,1 (March 2014), pp. 3-4.

[15] Peter Whitlock, “Will of Richard Whitlock, 1642,” p. 4. See also “Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649),” at the website of the library of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

[16] St. Peter le Poer Church, London, Burial Register 1642, in the collection Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812 held by London Metropolitan Archives, and available digitally in Ancestry’s database London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812.

[17] As Rosemary Lea notes, “John Whitlock wrote in 1647 that his mother and brother [Robert] had a house in Oakingham [i.e., Wokingham] and lived there in the summertime….”(p. 25): see Rosemary Lea, “The Holt Estate and Its Owners — Part 1,” p. 25.

[18] Prerogative Court of Canterbury 11/207, pp. 320-1. Peter Whitlock has transcribed the will at “Will of Katherine (Burchette) Whitlock 1648,” Whitlock Family Newsletter 35,1 (March 2016), pp. 4-5.

[19] See supra, n. 2.

[20] This information is found in John Whitlock, A Brief Account of the Life of the Rev. William Reynolds, for Several years Minister of the Gospel in the Church of St. Mary, Nottingham; by the Rev. John Whitlock, at the Same Time Vicar of the Said Church, etc. (Nottingham: J. Dunn, 1807). Sections of John’s account are reproduced in Rev. Benjamin Carpenter, “A Historical Account of the Society of Protestant Dissenters Assembling in the High-Pavement Chapel, Nottingham,” The Christian Reformer, Or, Unitarian Magazine and Review 6,66 (June 1850), 346-356. See also John Whitlock’s biography in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 61, ed. Sidney Lee (London: Smith, Elder, 1900), p. 141; Thomas Bailey, Annals of Nottinghamshire, vol. 2 (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1852), pp. 802, 804; and George Lyon Turner, Original Records of Early Nonconformity Under Persecution and Indulgence: Historical and Expository, vol. 3 (London: Fisher Unwin, 1914), p. 284.