Author: Whitmore, William
Biography:
WHITMORE, William (fl 1785-99)
“William Whitmore, Esq.” is an unexpectedly common name for the time and it is not possible to identify the author of the three titles listed here with any confidence. All three are relatively short publications, patriotic in spirit and uninspired in style. The consensus of the few brief reviews of them was that despite good intentions, they failed on account of their obscure and laboured language. One internal clue to the identity of the writer is his dedication of The Comparison in 1799 to “William Sheldon, Esq., Southampton-Street, Covent-Garden,” a lawyer who occupied that address 1772-1800. Whitmore paid taxes on properties in the City of London between 1776 and 1807, first at Dowgate (1776-95) and then on Coleman St. (1795-1807). He is probably the man of that name who was elected one of 21 directors of the South Sea Company for a three-year term in 1799 and may be the one who was elected to the membership of a committee that raised subscriptions for the support of injured soldiers, the Patriotic Fund, in 1803. There were distinguished men of that name associated with great families in Shropshire and Norfolk, but this man seems to have stayed close to London. He may be the William Whitmore of Shepperton, Surrey, eldest son of William and Mary (Nicholls) Whitmore, who was baptised at St. Nicholas, Shepperton, on 9 May 1755; married his cousin Ann Whitmore at St. Mary’s, Lambeth, Surrey, on 2 Aug. 1774; and was buried at St. Nicholas on 5 Feb. 1806. His occupation as given on the burial record is “Esquire.” Ann Whitmore died on 17 Sept. 1824, aged 70, and there is a monumental inscription to them and their families, including their only daughter Anna Maria, in the south transept of St. Nicholas. (ancestry.com 28 May 2024; findmypast.com 28 May 2024; LBS 28 May 2024; CR 60 [1785], 392; Analytical Review [1792], 72; MR 9 [1792], 215; True Briton 2 Aug. 1803; Royal Kalendar [1799, 1800]) HJ
Other Names:
- W. Whitmore