WHITNEY-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: Re: Ancestry of John Whitney of Isleworth
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 10:36:04 -0400 (EDT)

Dear Rosemary (and WRG):

(WRG - Rosemary Linn wrote to me asking for an update on what is being done
to try and "repair" the breach in our English ancestry beyond the
no-longer-tenable connection between Thomas Whitney of Westminster and his
supposed father, Robert. While in the middle of my answer to her, it
occurred to me that what I was writing to her should probably be sent to the
rest of you as well.)

Oh, by all means, keep your "grandeur" bright. There is a little being done,
but not too much as far as I can tell. While at the American Library
Association convention in San Francisco, held one month ago, I did discover
that there was a web site in England that had a lot of old material from
Cheshire available on-line for searching. I have simply been too busy in the
week and a half since our return home to sit down and spend some time
exploring it. As soon as I get a chance, I'll look at it and see if it looks
like it might be useful. If it is, perhaps you could join in the effort of
sifting. The "publicity" material I picked up from the person manning the
booth at the exhibits simply indicates that there are some (without stating
how much) materials between 1100 and 1500 that have been made available
on-line. I don't even know if these are graphic facsimilies of the original
documents that have been scanned and saved, actual transcriptions of the
originals in dog Latin, or translations into modern English. (You weren't a
Latin teacher, by any chance?)

Also, one of our members, a physics professor at Oxford named (appropriately
enough) John Whitney, has agreed to do a little digging in his "spare time" -
which, I am sure, is not very extensive. This actually points up one of the
problems we have with this family. There don't seem to be very many Whitneys
in England any more, and those that are there are not direct descendants of
our "main" line from Whitney, Clifford, Icomb etc. That (male) line died out
before the end of the 1600's, as witnessed by the pathetic attempt by young
John Whitney, nephew of our immigrant John and son of his younger brother,
Robert Whitney of St. Peter's, Cornhill, to lay claim to the family estates
and honors. (Never mind that if his claim HAD been valid it would have been
negated/superseded by the superior claim of our John and his eldest male
descent, since John was older brother to Robert.)

Obviously, since I have not had opportunity to spend time tracing them, I do
not now KNOW, but do suspect that most, if not all, of the remaining Whitneys
stem from lines that descend from younger male Whitneys who left
Herefordshire and "married out", quite a few of which seem to have gravitated
to Cheshire. At what point in the long cherished association of the family
with the Baskervilles, Milbournes, Touchets, etc., these men wandered off in
search of other women who were sole or joint heiresses (the favorite method
of family advancement), and thus how much of the "royal heritage" can be
re-established, is a question that may have a long wait to be answered.

I have gotten my materials somewhat sorted out, and hope to be able to send
out some of the data I gleaned while on my trip, especially some of the
things I found at the Sutro Library in SF. Until then,

Happy Hunting!

Allan

"I'm always late. Some of my ancestors came over on the December Flower"

This thread:

• Ancestry of John Whitney by Gordon & Jane <>

  • Re: Ancestry of John Whitney of Isleworth by <>