Richard Whitlock (abt. 1583 – 1642), London Merchant and Owner of Beches Manor, Wokingham, Berkshire, England

Sir Henry Saint-George and Richard Saint-George, The Visitation of London, Anno Domini 1633, 1634, and 1635, vol. 2 (London: 1883), p. 347

Or, Subtitled: “I Richard Whitlock Citizen and Merchant of London”

Richard Whitlock (abt. 1583 – 1642), father of Richard Whitlock (1616-1666), was born prior to 12 December 1586, when his father John Whitlock made his will at the Holt estate, the dower house of Beches manor, at Wokingham in Wiltshire.[1]  Though most of Wokingham is in Berkshire, at this point, the Holt house was in a detached part of Wiltshire that comprised part of Wokingham. John Whitlock’s will states that his son Richard was the youngest of John’s sons, and was, along with brothers Clement, De la Beche, and Thomas, under 24 years of age. Richard’s birth year has been conventionally estimated as “about” 1583. A brass memorial plaque for Richard’s wife Katherine Burchett/Brechette Whitlock on the north chancel wall of All Saints church at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England, states that Katherine died 2 April 1649, aged 54, which would give Katherine a birth year of 1595.[2] That birth year is confirmed by the baptismal register of the church of St. Gregory and St. Martin at Wye, County Kent, which shows Katherine Byrchet, daughter of David, being baptized in that parish on 18 May 1595.[3]

Extract from 12 December 1568 will of John Whitlock, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 11/74, pp. 169-171

Richard Whitlock (1616-1666), Oxford Graduate, Anglican Parson, Heir to Manor of Beches, Berkshire, England

Anthony à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops Who Have Their Education in the University of Oxford, vol. 3 (London: F.C. and J. Rivington, 1817), pp. 984

Or, Subtitled: “This Mr. Whitlock was a man of wit & learning”

Richard Whitlock (1616-1666), son of Richard Whitlock and Katherine Burchett and father of James Whitlock (1651-1516) the Virginia immigrant, was baptized 17 November 1616 at St. Peter le Poer church in London.[1] St. Peter le Poer, which no longer stands, was on the west side of Broad Street in the city of London. The church was of medieval origin and was rebuilt from its medieval foundations in 1540 and 1792, in the latter instance according to a design by Jesse Gibson. The church was demolished in 1907.

St. Peter le Poer church, from Robert William Billings and John Le Keux, The Churches of London by George Godwin (1839), at Wikimedia

James Whitlock (1651-1716), Virginia Immigrant: Virginia Records

G.C. Chamberlayne, The Vestry Book and Register of St. Peter’s Parish, New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia, 1684-1786 (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1937), p. 447

Or, Subtitled: Glimpsing Tidewater Virginia Immigrants in the 17th Century and Their English Roots

As the previous posting states, we first catch sight of the immigrant James Whitlock (1651-1716) in Virginia records in a 12 July 1680 power of attorney filed in an (Old) Rappahannock County will book, a power of attorney given by James’s cousin in England, Anthony Whitlock (born 1657), to empower James to act on behalf of the estate of Anthony’s uncle Thomas Whitlock (1615-1659), who had died in (Old) Rappahannock County in 1659.[1] Anthony Whitlock’s power of attorney, given in London with affidavits supporting it from James’s uncle John Whitlock (1625-1708) and Anthony’s aunt Johanna Whitlock Harris (1617-1684), states (as do the supporting affidavits) that James Whitlock was Anthony’s kinsman and was a Virginia planter.