John Whistler ( – 1647) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

at various times between 1624 and 1644. 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 governme ...

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 ...

. Whistler was the son of Hugh Whistler of Milton Parva, Oxfordshire. He matriculated at

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

on 14 October 1597 aged 17 and was awarded BA on 17 February 1601. He entered

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

on 4 May 1601 and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1611. He succeeded his father after 1612, and held a number of positions in his Inn, serving as

reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

Staple Inn Staple Inn is a part- Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn street in the City of London, London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries ...

in 1620, and of Gray's Inn in 1628. He became a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can ...

of Gray's Inn in 1629, dean of the chapel in 1635, and treasurer between 1639 and 1640. In 1623 he was made deputy recorder of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

to Thomas Wentworth.W R Williams ''The Parliamentary History of the County of Oxford''
/ref> In that same year he was also made a freeman of the city, served as a fee'd

counsel A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...

and was appointed a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Oxford. In 1624, Whistler was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

. He was re-elected MP for Oxford in 1625, 1626 and 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He succeeded Wentworth as recorder of Oxford on his death in 1627. Whistler contested Oxford again in March 1640 but was defeated. He was successful in November 1640 in gaining re-election for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

. He supported the King and attended the Oxford Parliament in 1644, which caused him to be disabled from sitting in the House of Commons, probably in January 1644. He never married, and died in 1647, being buried at Little Haseley on 2 April 1647.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Whistler, John 1580s births 1647 deaths English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640–1648 Members of Gray's Inn English justices of the peace Year of birth uncertain