Family and Education

b. c.1651, 2nd s. of Roger Whitley. educ. Christ Church, Oxf., matric. 29 Oct. 1668, aged 17. m. lic. 23 Feb. 1680, Elizabeth (d. 15 Aug. 1696), da. of Thomas Lewes, Vintner, of Little St. Helens, London, 1s. 2da.1

Offices Held

Receiver of revenue, N. Wales and Chester c.1670-86, commr. for assessment, Cheshire and Flints. 1677-80, 1689-90, Chester 1689; member, Royal Fishery Co. 1677; freeman, Chester 1680-4, Aug. 1688-d., Denbigh 1680, Chipping Wycombe 1691; capt. of militia ft. Flints. c.1680; alderman, Chester Aug.-Oct. 1688; jt. constable, Flint Castle 1689-d.; jt. surveyor, Chester Castle 1689-d.; jt. keeper of records, Cheshire and Flints. 1689-d.; jt. comptroller of pleas, Caern. 1689-d.; j.p. Flints. 1689-d., custos rot. 1689-91.2

Biography

Whitley’s career was overshadowed by his father, who obtained for him the reversion of the receivership of crown revenue in North Wales and Chester in 1666, and made way for him in the Flint Boroughs constituency in 1681. He left no trace on the records of the Oxford Parliament. In the following year he was ‘as forward as any’ in attendance on Monmouth during his progress through Cheshire. When his house in Chester was searched after the Rye House Plot, 50 muskets were found, but he explained that they had been given him by his father to arm his militia company. He was bound over to keep the peace, and when a new charter was issued to Chester in 1684 he was specifically barred from the freedom of the city. He did not lose his receivership, however, until after the accession of James II. He was appointed alderman of Chester in the charter issued in August 1688, but like the rest of the corporation refused to take the oaths. There is no record of his activity during the Revolution, but he received several local appointments from the new regime and regained his seat in 1690, presumably as a court Whig. He died in his father’s lifetime and was buried at Hawarden on 28 Apr. 1696. His descendants never entered Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: A. M. Mimardière / Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. Lloyd, Powys Fadog. v. 274; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 1457.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1670. p. 29; July-Sept. 1683, p. 294; 1687-9 pp. 256, 324; 1689-90, p. 312; Cal. Treas. Bks. iv. 125; vi. 2; ix. 168; Freemen of Chester (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. li), 172; J. Williams, Recs. of Denbigh, 140; First Wycombe Ledger Bk. (Bucks. Rec. Soc. xi), 233.
• 3. CSP Dom. 1665-6, p. 166; July-Sept. 1683, p. 294; 1683-4, p. 21; SP/44/70, p. 81; G. L. Fenwick, Chester, 235.