Sir Thomas Whitmore, 1st Baronet (28 November 1612 – 1653) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was re ...

between 1640 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 gove ...

side in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

Biography

Whitmore was the son of Sir William Whitmore of Apley Hall,

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, and his second wife Dorothy Weld, daughter of John Weld of London. His father was

High Sheriff of Shropshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire The high sheriff, 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 t ...

in 1620, and nephew of Sir George Whitmore (d.1654), Lord Mayor of London. In April 1640, Whitmore was elected Member of Parliament for

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the United Kingd ...

for the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. He was re-elected in November 1640 in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

and held the seat until 1644 when he was disabled for supporting the King. He was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, of Apley, on 28 June 1641. In February, 1645, Whitmore's home Apley Hall was taken by the Parliamentarians under Sir John Price. Whitmore and his father, Sir Francis Ottley, Mr. Owen, and about sixty men, were captured. Their estates and moveable property were sequestered by the county's Sequestration Committee and they were held in confinement for a considerable time. Whitmore was fined the enormous sum of £5,000 by the compounders. Whitmore died at the age of 41. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

Family

Whitmore married Elizabeth Acton, daughter of Sir William Acton, 1st Baronet. They had children: * Sir William Whitmore, 2nd Baronet, who married Mary Harvey, and died without issue. *Sir Thomas Whitmore, who married Hon. Frances Brooke, leaving issue. *Anne Whitmore, who married Sir Francis Lawley, 2nd Baronet, of Canwell, Staffordshire, leaving issue. *Elizabeth Whitmore, who married John Bennet, leaving issue. *Dorothy Whitmore, who married Sir Eliab Harvey of Chigwell, leaving issue.

Notes

References

* * * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitmore, Thomas 1612 births 1653 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England Cavaliers English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648