WHITLEY, Thomas (c.1651-96), of Peel Hall, Cheshire

The staunch Whiggery which Whitley demonstrated throughout the 1680s was rewarded at the Revolution by his appointment to a number of minor Welsh offices one of which, that of joint constable of Flint Castle, no doubt smoothed his unopposed return for Flint Boroughs in 1690. Lord Carmarthen’s (Sir Thomas Osborne†) analysis of the new House classed Whitley as a Whig. On 8 Jan. 1692 Whitley presented a petition from a Mr Dodsworth asking for financial remuneration for ‘the great charges he had been at in prosecuting his information against papists in Lancashire’, Dodsworth’s information later forming part of the basis for the Lancashire Plot allegations. In January 1694 a bill passed the House enabling Whitley and his father to break the entail on some of their Cheshire estates in order to exchange lands of equal value. At the 1695 election Whitley stood aside at Flint Boroughs and supported the successful candidacy of Sir Roger Puleston. He died on 28 Apr. 1696, and was succeeded by his only son Roger. Whitley should not be confused with his cousin Thomas Whitley of Aston. It was Whitley of Aston who in the early 1700s was involved in prolonged negotiations with the Treasury concerning his debt as surety for the former receiver-general of taxes for Cheshire and North Wales, Morgan Whitley, and who in 1706 obtained an Act allowing him to compound with the Treasury for this debt.1 Luttrell Diary, 117; NLW, Chirk Castle mss E1052, William Eyton to [Sir Richard Myddelton, 1st Bt.*], 23 [Oct. 1695]; Cal. Treas. Bks. xvii. 377; HMC Lords, n.s. vii. 377.