Thomas Whitney

d. 1637

Died 1637

Children include John

Thomas Whitney first appears in May 1583, when he took out a licence to marry Mary Bray, the daughter of a Westminster tailor. The licence calls him "Thomas Whytney of Lambeth Marsh, gentleman." Lambeth Marsh was the low ground on the Surrey bank of the Thames, across the river from Westminster. The wedding was at St Margaret's, the parish church that stands beside Westminster Abbey, on 12 May 1583.

He and Mary had ten children christened at St Margaret's between 1584 and 1605. Five of them were buried there as children: Thomas, the first son, at less than a month, then Henry, Arnwaye, Nowell, and a Mary who lived six days. Of the children who grew up, three sons are known: John, Francis and Robert.

He was a householder of some standing. He leased property from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster from 1606, paid the subsidy tax in 1611, and in 1635 held property in King Street and Sayes Alley, a few hundred yards from the church. In February 1607 he bound his son John apprentice to William Pring, a merchant tailor of the Old Bailey, and in 1624 he bound his youngest son Robert apprentice to John. When his father in law John Bray's will was proved in December 1615, he was its executor.

Mary was buried in September 1629. Thomas was buried at St Margaret's on 15 April 1637. His eldest surviving son was by then in Massachusetts, so on 8 May the administration of his estate went to Francis and Robert. Their accounts show he died in comfortable circumstances.

In 1896 Henry Melville published a book that made him a grandson of Sir Robert Whitney of Whitney on the Wye, in Herefordshire, and through that knightly family a descendant of kings. Melville never showed the link between Thomas and the Herefordshire Whitneys. Later work has not proved it either, and his parents are not known.

Children

John Whitney 1592-1673

Sources

Frederick Clifton Pierce, Whitney: The Descendants of John Whitney, who came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635 (Chicago, 1895), pages 16 to 19, printing Henry Melville's account of the English ancestry, his extracts from the books of the Merchant Taylors' Company, and the Isleworth register (archive.org whitneydescendan00pier). Westminster Abbey, commemorations, "Thomas Whitney and family" (westminster-abbey.org), for the St Margaret's christenings, burials and the marriage of 12 May 1583. "Feb. 22, 1607, John Whitney, son of Thomas Whitney of the city of Westminster, yeoman, apprenticed to William Pring of the Old Bailey. March 13, 1614, John Whitney made free by William Pring, his master." "March 8, 1624, Robert Whitney, son of Thomas Whitney of the city of Westminster, gentleman, apprenticed to John Whitney of Isleworth." "1621, Sept. 14, John Whitne and Ellin had John their son baptized. 1623-4, Jan. 6, John Whitne and Elinor his wife had their son Richard baptized."

Frederick Clifton Pierce, Whitney: The Descendants of John Whitney (Chicago, 1895), pages 16 to 18, printing Henry Melville's account and his extracts from the books of the Merchant Taylors' Company (archive.org whitneydescendan00pier). Westminster Abbey, commemorations, "Thomas Whitney and family," from the St Margaret's registers and the Abbey muniments. Robert Leigh Ward and Tim Doyle, "The Whitney Lineage of John Whitney of Watertown," The American Genealogist 81 (2006), 249 to 262, as cited.

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Cite: Heirology, "Thomas Whitney (d. 1637)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/thomas-whitney-1637-c05d7e.