Sir George Whitmore (died 12 December 1654) was an English merchant who was

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

in 1631.E.I. Carlyle, 'Whitmore, Sir George (died 1654)', ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (1885-1900)
vol. 61
He supported the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. Whitmore was the third son of William Whitmore (d. 1593), citizen and Haberdasher of London, lessee of Balmes Manor in Hackney and owner of Apley Hall in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. His mother Anne (died 1615), a benefactor of the Haberdashers' Company, was the daughter of William Bonde, Haberdasher,

Sheriff of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ju ...

in 1567-68, and alderman of London from 1567 to 1576.A.B. Beaven, ''The Aldermen of the City London, temp. Henry III.-1908'', 2 vols (The City Corporation, London 1913), II
p. 38
(Internet Archive). William Bonde died in 1576. George was the younger brother of Sir William Whitmore of

Apley Apley is a hamlet and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated west from the hamlet of Kingthorpe and the site of Kingthorpe railway station, and approximately south-west from Wragby. Apley churc ...

, Shropshire, and they were brothers-in-law of Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor in 1611. George Whitmore was a city of London merchant and a member of the

Worshipful Company of Haberdashers The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, is an ancient merchant guild of London, England associated with the silk and velvet trades. History and functions The Haberdashers' Company follows the M ...

. On 2 June 1621 he was elected an alderman of the City of London for

Farringdon Within Farringdon Within is one of the 25 wards of the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It was formed in the 14th century from the sub-division of the pre-existing Farringdon Ward into ''Farringdon Within'' (inside the line ...

ward. He was

from 1621 to 1622 and Master of the Haberdashers Company for the first time in the same year: he transferred as alderman to the

Langbourn Langbourn is one of the 25 ancient wards of the City of London. It reputedly is named after a buried stream in the vicinity. It is a small ward; a long thin area, running in a west–east direction. Historically, Lombard Street and Fenchurch ...

ward in 1626. In 1624 the theologian

Thomas Gataker Thomas Gataker (* London, 4 September 1574 – † Cambridge, 27 June 1654) was an English clergyman and theologian. Life He was born in London, the son of Thomas Gatacre. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1601 to 1611 he h ...

(1574-1654) published a volume ''Iacobs Thankfulnesse to God, for Gods Goodness to Iacob'', dedicated jointly to Sir William and to Mr George Whitmore, opening his address by stating that their mother had presented him and spoken for him at baptism, as his godmother. He goes on to say that she continued to support him, making bequests to him in her will. His texts, which concern the promise that God will advance the temporal affairs of those who attend to the spiritual, are, he says, "to egge you on, whom God hath blessed with so large a portion of his bounty, unto those religious offices, that by occasion of Iacobs example, men of your rancke are therein encited unto, whether risen from meane estate, as with him here it had beene, or from the first largely and liberally endowed, as your selves". His texts are an expansion of a lecture formerly delivered to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers when one of them, as Master of the Company, proposed his name to address them. He develops his theme to explore differences between their own theology and that of the Romanists. In 1631, he was elected

Thomas Heywood Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece '' A Woman Killed with Kindness'', ...

published an account of all the pageants and triumphs which attended his inauguration, and in his dedicatory letter wrote: "...of you it may be undeniably spoken: that none ever in your place was more sufficient or able, any cause whatsoever shall be brought before you, more truly to discerne; being apprehended more aduisedly to dispose, being digested, more maturely to despatch." He was Master of the Haberdashers Company again from 1631 to 1632. He was knighted on 27 May 1632. From 1632 to 1642 he was president of Bethlem and

Bridewell Bridewell Palace in London was built as a residence of King Henry VIII and was one of his homes early in his reign for eight years. Given to the City of London Corporation by his son King Edward VI for use as an orphanage and place of corre ...

. He was a strong supporter of the King in the Civil War, and was imprisoned by the Parliamentarians as a 'delinquent'. In 1641, he received King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

at Balmes Manor, which had been purchased for him in 1634 by his elder brother Sir William Whitmore of Apley,A. Thrush and S. Healey, 'Whitmore, William (1573-1648), of Apley Park, Salop.', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris (eds), ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629'' (Cambridge University Press 2010)
History of Parliament Online

High Sheriff of Shropshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibil ...

in 1620.

Family

Sir George Whitmore married Mary Copcott, daughter and heir of Reynold Copcott, step-daughter of Richard Daniel of Truro, and sister of Alexander Daniel whom she names in her will probated 1657. Their children were:W.H. Whitmore, ''Notes on the Manor and Family of Whitmore'' (Private circulation, Boston 1856)
p. 9
(Hathi Trust). * William Whitmore, of Balmes, Hackney, married Frances. * Charles Whitmore, inherited the manor of Ottringham, Yorkshire * George Whitmore * Elizabeth Whitmore, married Sir John Weld (died 1681) of Willey, Shropshire. Her daughter married Richard Whitmore, jnr, of

Lower Slaughter Lower Slaughter is a village in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, south west of Stow-on-the-Wold. The village is built on both banks of the River Eye, a slow-moving stream crossed by two footbridges, which also flows through ...

. * Anne Whitmore, married Sir John Robinson, Lord Mayor of London in 1662. * Margaret Whitmore, married

Sir Charles Kemeys, 2nd Baronet Sir Charles Kemeys, 2nd Baronet (–1658) was the second of the Kemeys Baronets, a Welsh family of landowners in the county of Monmouthshire, Wales. His father, Sir Nicholas Kemeys, 1st Baronet was MP for Monmouth in 1628, High Sheriff of Monmou ...

, of

Cefn Mably Cefn Mably is a district located approximately 6 miles north of Cardiff city centre and 5 miles south-east of Caerphilly. It's mostly within the city and county of Cardiff but is also partly within the Caerphilly County Borough. Notable Buildi ...

.J.P. Ferris, 'Kemys, Sir Charles, 3rd Bt. (1651-1702), of Cefn Mabli, Glam.; Llanfair Discoed, Mon. and Denmark Street, St. Giles in the Fields, Mdx.', in B.D. Henning (ed.), ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690'' (from Boydell and Brewer 1983)
History of Parliament
* Mary Whitmore, baptized 1615

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitmore, George Year of birth missing 1654 deaths 17th-century lord mayors of London English merchants Haberdashers Sheriffs of the City of London Cavaliers