WHITAKER, William (c.1580-1646), of the Middle Temple, London, and Shaftesbury, Dorset.

The Whitaker family had originated in Wiltshire, where William’s grandfather was a wealthy clothier, but enjoyed an extensive connection across the south west. William’s mother was a Hawkins of Plymouth, and at Oxford and the Middle Temple he became a close associate of his contemporaries, John Pym* of Somerset and Francis Rous* of Cornwall, whose godly religious views he probably shared. Whitaker’s friendship with Pym is of particular importance. Both men attended Broadgates Hall in Oxford, and were admitted to the Middle Temple on the same day, being bound as manucaptors (or sureties) for each other.17Al. Ox.; MTR i. 421. This legal association marked the beginnings of a friendship which would have an important influence on Whitaker’s later career.

Whitaker was called to the bar in 1611, and embarked on a legal career which alternated between the central law courts and the local assizes and quarter sessions. His personal association with Dorset dates from his marriage, in 1619, into the Hooper family of Boveridge, and he soon acquired property in east Dorset in his own right, including land in Shaftesbury borough, and an estate at Motcombe, near Gillingham.18Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 17, 628-9. In the early 1620s Whitaker seems to have come under the influence of William Herbert, 3rd earl of Pembroke, and it was through the earl’s patronage that he was returned for Shaftesbury in the Parliaments of 1624, 1625 and 1626. He was chosen as recorder of the borough in 1627, and in the same year was made bencher and reader at the Middle Temple.19Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 17; MTR ii. 722; HP Commons 1604-1629. With Pembroke’s reconciliation with George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, Whitaker lost his political patron, and failed to secure a fourth term as Shaftesbury’s MP in 1628.

In the late 1620s and early 1630s Whitaker remained in Dorset, sitting on the commission of the peace, and he led the investigation into the Gillingham enclosure riots in 1631.20Dorset RO, QSM/1/1, p. 301; CSP Dom. 1631-2, pp. 74, 155. In about 1633 he donated land to Shaftesbury borough to found a free grammar school.21Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 43. In the mid-1630s Whitaker returned to London, where he served as treasurer to the Middle Temple in 1635-7, but in the last years of the decade he was again resident in the south west, working with other east Dorset justices of the peace, like his fellow Middle Templar, Matthew Davies*, and the Sherborne recorder, Richard King*, in matters of common local interest.22MTR ii. 839, 157-8; PC2/48, p. 489; C181/5, f. 113; Western Circuit Assize Orders ed. Cockburn, 138, 204.

In the elections for the Short Parliament, in March 1640, Whitaker was again returned as MP for Shaftesbury, although by this time he may have owed his mandate to his own interest as recorder and resident as much as to the support of Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke.23C219/42/91. There is no evidence of Whitaker’s activity in this Parliament. Despite this lack of distinction, he was duly elected for the same seat for the new Parliament which sat in November 1640.24C219/43/169. Whitaker’s involvement in the Long Parliament is obscured by the confusion of his name with that of the much more important parliamentarian, Lawrence Whitaker. Once the two have been disentangled, it becomes clear that William, despite his parliamentarian connections and his godly convictions, was at best only a lukewarm opponent of Charles I. In the first year of the Parliament he was named to the committee of privileges on 6 November 1640 and to the committee on the reformation of the church courts on 27 April 1641; he took the Protestation on 3 May, and was appointed to raise money for Parliament’s use from the Middle Temple in July 1641.25CJ ii. 21a, 128b, 133a, 199a. The paucity of Whitaker’s recorded participation in the early months of the Long Parliament suggests that he lacked the radical zeal of his friend, John Pym. This impression is confirmed by his behaviour in the next few months.

After the summer of 1641 Whitaker’s attendance at Parliament was even more irregular, and led to suspicions that he shared the neutralist, or even pro-royalist, sympathies of many of the Dorset gentry. On 23 April 1642 the Commons ordered that Whitaker, with Richard King* and Matthew Davies*, attend the House to explain ‘why they departed, and have been so long absent from the House, without leave’, and travelled during a fast day.26CJ ii. 545a. This summons was passed on to the sheriff of Dorset, who was also charged with apprehending three leading local royalists: Sir Gerard Naper*, Sir John Strangways* and Giles Strangways*.27Bodl. Nalson II, ff. 36-7. Six days later, however, Whitaker returned to Westminster to beg for forgiveness for his absence ‘by reason of his attendance upon the sessions in the county where he lived’.28PJ ii. 241-2; CJ ii. 548a. The excuse was accepted, but Whitaker remained under suspicion. On 12 November 1642 he was again included with Davies and King in a list of absentees to be arrested and brought to London.29CJ ii. 845b. On 15 February 1643 the three men were again summoned as delinquents.30CJ ii. 966a. In March Whitaker’s case was brought up by another Dorset MP, Denis Bond*, who ‘moved with much earnestness’ that he should be thrown out of the Commons as a delinquent. In the ensuing debate Whitaker was exonerated, ‘being an ancient reader or bencher of the Middle Temple and one or two speaking on his behalf, the house laid it aside and voted nothing against him’.31Harl. 164, f. 332. The identity of his supporters is unspecified, but his long-standing friendship with Pym and Rous, and his association with Pembroke, presumably played a part in protecting him against his local enemy. Final vindication came in May 1643, when the Commons accepted the recommendation of the committee on absent Members that Whitaker ‘shall be forthwith admitted into the House, notwithstanding any former order, or vote, of delinquency’.32CJ iii. 84a. On 6 July 1643 he took the oath and covenant, and this public display of loyalty brought an end to over a year of uncertainty.33CJ iii. 118a.

Whitaker’s acceptance at Westminster may have owed more to his continued residence in London than to a genuine increase in political commitment. The records of the Middle Temple show that Whitaker was present at meetings on 12 May 1643, 5 July and 22 November 1644, 7 February 1645 and 8 May 1646. On 27 May 1643 he was one of the benchers chosen to oversee the removal of Laudian furnishings from the chapel at the Middle Temple; and in later years he was willing to sponsor the private interests on leading parliamentarians within the inn: in 1645 backing the admission of the brothers of the 2nd earl of Manchester (Edward Montagu†) to their father’s chambers; and in 1646 acting as go-between for Sir Simonds D’Ewes* in his dealings with the Temple.34MTR ii. 929, 931-3, 939, 1004.

Yet this renewed activity in the Middle Temple was not matched by his increased involvement in Parliament. Between July 1643 and March 1646 Whitaker appears only once in the Commons’ Journals, in a vote to allow him a weekly stipend, and his only mention in the diaries was on 3 June 1645, when Walter Yonge* noted that when other MPs promised contributions to the war effort, ‘William Whitaker of Shaftesbury lent nothing’.35CJ iv. 161a; Add. 18780, f. 29. Suspicions of Whitaker’s conduct seem to have disappeared altogether by early 1646, however, as on 16 March of that year Whitaker was given leave to go into the country to continue his activities as a justice of the peace.36CJ iv. 476b, 582b. He was present at the Dorchester assizes on 7 April, and on 8 July signed a letter from the county committee to Parliament, reporting the progress of the Shaftesbury assizes, and complaining of ‘the great insolencies and disorders’ of Edward Massie’s* brigade in the county.37Christie, Shaftesbury, i. appx. i, p. xxxiv. Bodl. Tanner 59, f. 392. On 31 August Whitaker agreed to lend money (on a bond of £500) to his fellow justice, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper*.38Christie, Shaftesbury, i. appx i, p. xli.

Within a few days of signing this agreement Whitaker suddenly fell ill, and he died on 3 October. By his will, written before the civil war, he gave the income from his Dorset estates to his wife, instructing her ‘to be very careful of the religious education of my children’, and left money to the poor of the parishes of Holy Trinity and St Peter’s, Shaftesbury.39PROB11/198/72. He also stipulated that ‘as my life hath been ever private… so my funerals may be free from ostentation’, and in this his wishes were respected: he was buried in Holy Trinity Church, with a simple memorial window engraved: ‘Good men need not marble. We do trust to glass the memory of William Whitaker, Esq’.40PROB11/198/72; Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 50. He was succeeded by his son and heir, Henry Whitaker*, who became recorder of Shaftesbury in 1653, and was returned as MP for the borough in 1659.