Whatmore Family History

Despite an ancestry of many generations of small farmers and agricultural labourers, the latent intelligence and abilities of the Whatmores began to show clearly in the nineteenth century in those family members fortunate enough to receive a good education and to be given new opportunities. Abraham Whatmore from Kidderminster demonstrates well the new breed of  Whatmore men who managed to escape from the land and from servant status to become members of the middle class.

Abraham was baptised on 8 January 1843 at Kidderminster. His father was Thomas Whatmore who had been born on 23 December 1804 at Kinlet in Shropshire. Thomas married Hannah Smith on 29 April 1829 at Ribbesford. By 1841 the family was living at Chapel Street, Kidderminster and Thomas was working as a ‘hascier’. He was only 44 when he died in 1849. Hannah continued to live in Chapel Street but she also died quite young in 1854. Like most of the centre of kidderminster, Chapel Street has been swept away by the town planners, and only one building remains which the Whatmore family would have recognised.

Chapel Street Kidderminster today  Copyright: Sheila Kirk and reproduced here by her kind permission

Resisting the temptation to find employment in the poorly paid carpet trade in Kidderminster, Abraham, who may have acquired an education at the Grammar School in Kidderminster, got a job at nearby Witley Court. In 1861 he was working there, aged 18, as a Steward’s Room Boy.

Witley Court, in Victorian times was one of the large and most opulent country houses in England. The house and grounds had been bought by Thomas Foley in 1655. His grandson, another Thomas, rebuilt the parish church which stands beside the house and in 1747 he bought ceiling paintings and glass windows from  the sale of Canons at Edgware, Middlsex and used them to beautify the interior of the church. He employed mould-makers to reproduce the main features of the plaster work in the church at Canons and used gilded papier mache to create a new ceiling in Great Witley church.  The church now has the finest baroque interior in England.

 Witley Court about 1891  Painting by Rev  F O Morris   From ‘County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland’ by Rev. F O Morris

In 1837 the 4th Lord Foley sold Witley Court to the trustees of William Humble Ward who was heir to the wealth of the Dudley family. When he came into his inheritance in 1846,  Lord Ward began the transformation of Witley Court. Lord Ward was created 1st Earl of Dudley in 1860.  By the time of his death in 1885 he had created a Palladian palace. By 1920s the Dudley family were experiencing financial difficulties and in that year they sold the Witley estate. The court with its contents was bought by Sir Herbert Smith, a carpet magnate from Kidderminster. In 1937 a fire broke out which severely damaged the central and eastern part of Witley Court. The following year Sir Herbert Smith decided to sell the Court,  but at auction it failed to meet the reserve price. The estate was thus split into lots. The buildings were purchased by demolition contractors and the house fell into ruin and decay. The house now belongs to English Heritage, and despite the runied state of the buildings, the former magnificence is still apparent and Witley Court is well worth a visit.

The above account is based on information from’ Witley Court’ by Bill Pardoe published in 1986.

Follow this link for pictures of Witley Court: http://www.nifty.demon.co.uk/witley/index.htm

This then was the splendid house in which Abraham Whatmore was working in 1861. Also working at Witley Court as a kitchen maid was Elizabeth Preece who was the daughter of Samuel Preece, a carpenter who lived in the village of Great Witley, and his wife Ann. Elizabeth had been baptised at Shelsey on 12 December 1841.

Abraham Whatmore married Elizabeth Preece on 11 July 1865 at Great Witley church. Shortly afterwards they moved to Hamilton Road,  Norwood in Surrey where their first child  Charles Arthur Whatmore was born on 27 April 1866. Abraham is decribed on Charles’ birth certificate as a Merchant’s Clerk. Charles was taken back to Great Witley for his baptism on 26 August 1866, presumably so that Elizabeth’s parents could be present at the ceremony.

Two photographs of Great Witley Church  Copyright: Peter J Saunders and reproduced here by his kind permission

By 1870, when Abraham and Elizabeth’s second child Walter was born the family were living at  Finsbury Circus in the City of London.  In the 1871 census Abraham is again described as a Merchant’s Clerk.

In 1881, Abraham was acting as the landlord of the Spread Eagle in Victoria Street, Wolverhampton. Why he was there is unknown. Perhaps it was a temporary tenancy of behalf of a member of the Preece family. Charles Arthur was with his father, and was working as a Junior Commercial Clerk, but neither Elizabeth nor Walter were there. They were both at Lower Mitton, Bewdley where Elizabeth was working as a clothier.

By 1891 Abraham and Elizabeth were at Bromley by Bow, in east London and Abraham is described in the census as a clerk. Walter was at home and is also described as a clerk.  Abraham and Eliabeth’s other son, Charles Arthur Whatmore, had married Emma Stone in 1888 in the Wolverhampton Registration District. By 30 May 1889, when their first child Arthur Reginald Whatmore was born, they were living at Much Marcle, Herefordshire. In 1891 they were still living  there at the School House.  They are described as Government School Master and Mistress.  Their second child, Dorothy May Whatmore was born that same year at Much Marcle, but by 1893 the family were in Sheffield where their next child Walter Rowland Tracey Whatmore was born. One of Walter’s names commemorates the Rev. Tracey, a family friend.

By 1898, Charles and his family were at Hinckley in Leicestershire as their final child Kyrle Ernle W Whatmore was born there that year. Kyrle later had problems of some kind and was to die in 1931 when he was only 32 in the Leicester Registration District. It is believed that he died in some sort of institution.  In 1901 Charles and his family were still at Hinckley where  Charles and Emma were a School Master and a School Mistress. Charles died in 1924 at Hinckley. Emma died in 1934 in the Northampton Registration District.

Walter Whatmore, son of Abraham and Elizabeth, married Mary Jane Rogers in 1895 in the Poplar Registration District and in 1901 they were at West Ham where Walter was working as a Wholesale Stationary Clerk. Their two known children, Winifred born 1897 and Jane born 1899, were with them as was Walter’s father, working as a Clerk. Elizabeth had died early in 1901 in the Romford Registration District.  Abraham presumably continued to live with his son Walter until Abraham’s death, aged 70 in 1913 in the West Ham Registration District.

Three of the children of Charles and Emma Whatmore were to lead distinguished careers:

Arthur Reginald Whatmore became a famous actor, dramatist and theatre director and will be the subject of a future post.

Dorothy May Whatmore married the Reverend Francis Dent Vaisey in 1917 in St Martin’s Registration District, London. They had two daughters. From the 1930s onwards, Dorothy worked for the Society of Friends of the Poor (now friends of the Elderly) and from 1945 - 1969 she was the General Secretary. In recognition of her work she was awarded the OBE and was created a Dame. In 1969, shortly after her retirement, Dame Dorothy was the Guest Speaker at the Society’s Annual Meeting where she tragically collapsed and died whilst seated between Princess Margaret and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Walter Rowland Tracey Whatmore won a mathematics scholarship to Christ Church College, Cambridge. He served as an Infantry Officer with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in the First World War, rising to the rank of Colonel and winning a Military Cross and bar. In 1920 he joined the chartered accountants Peat Marwick Mitchell, eventually becoming a senior partner. Walter married Barbara Ellice Castell in 1927 in Bromley but she died tragically of peritonitis only two years later. In 1933, Walter remarried to Elsie Rose Cooper. They had three children, still living. Walter died at Esher, Surrey on 27 July 1962 shortly before he was due to retire. Elsie died in 1981 in the North Surrey Registration District.

The story of this family shows just what members of the Whatmore family can achieve, given the opportunity. I am most grateful to descendants of this family for the information which they have provided and which has been of great assistance in writing this account.