WHITHED (WHITEHEAD), Richard (1594-c.1663), of Norman Court, West Tytherley, Hants.

Whithed, like his father, was an enthusiastic leader of the local militia, but he and his father seem to have differed in political outlook. With his friend John Button*, Whithed expressed his independence by asking to be excused from subscribing to the Forced Loan of 1626-7, of which his father was a commissioner, and instead ‘voluntarily tendered’ the sum demanded.21 P. Haskell, ‘Ship Money in Hants’, in Hants Studies ed. J. Webb et al., 104. Probably through Button’s good offices he was admitted to the freedom of Lymington the following year, and returned for the borough at the general election in 1628, but he left no trace on the records of the Parliament. His father, who sat for Stockbridge, died while still in London after attending the second session, leaving Whithed to inherit Norman Court and take his place on the Hampshire magistrates bench. He initially refused to compound for knighthood on the grounds that he had not been summoned to attend the coronation and had not then held lands worth £40 p.a. but he paid £25 on a second commission.22 Add. 21922, ff. 177, 179, 181v. As sheriff, his Ship Money collections were seriously in arrears, but under threat of summons by the Privy Council he reduced the outstanding balance to £16 11s., allegedly by paying £30 from his own pocket.23 PC2/47 p. 48; Haskell, 86-88, 91, 99. A staunch parliamentarian in the Civil War, he did not sit after Pride’s Purge, but nevertheless retained local office throughout the Interregnum.24 M. Keeler, Long Parl. 391-2; G.N. Godwin, Civil War in Hants, 97-8, 198-9, 229. He died sometime in around 1663, and his will, dated 22 Dec. 1659, was proved on 17 May 1664.25 PROB 11/313, f. 186. His second son Richard sat for Stockbridge in 1659 and 1660, and his heir Henry for Portsmouth in 1660 and Stockbridge in the first two Exclusion parliaments.