Whatmore Family History

In the early nineteenth century the town of Ludlow provided new opportunities for members of families who had previously been tied to the land.  Two Watmore brothers, Thomas born 1771 at Stottesdon and John born 1776 at Stottesdon, were determined to make the most of the new possibilities. Thomas and John were sons of William Watmore, born 1736 at Detton Mill, and his wife Catherine Butcher whom he married at Hopton Wafers in 1761. The family lived at Stottesdon and at Bitterley near Ludlow. This is the  story of the first of the two brothers: Thomas Watmore born 1771.  John Watmore and his descendants will be described in a later post

 Thomas Watmore  married Mary Mapp on 14 December 1791 at Stanton Lacey near Ludlow.  

 In 1828, Thomas was running the Harp Inn at Ludlow. The building still remains, a half-timbered house which is currently an estate agents. Harp Lane itself is one of several parallel alleyways  between rows of tall narrow buildings. These represent the sites of the rows of market stalls in an originally large open space. The stall holders gradually made their constructions more permanent until eventually they became proper buildings.

The Harp Inn, Ludlow   Copyright: Peter Saunders and reproduced here by his kind permission

The children of Thomas Whatmore and Mary Mapp 

1. Edward Whatmore 

The eldest child of Thomas and Mary was Edward Whatmore  baptised in 1793. He married Ann Chipp and via this marriage acquired lands in the township of  Whatmore in the parish of Burford.  As explained in an earlier post, this township has nothing to do with our Whatmore family. The Whatmores are not from there, and only occasionally did any member of the Whatmore family live in the township of Whatmore. Edward and Ann’s marriage would seem to be the one recorded on 8 February 1815  at St Peter’s, Wolverhampton (witnesses Joseph Whatmore and John Robinson) but it is hard to understand what they were doing so far from home.

Edward was a publican like his father and in the year of his marriage was running a pub in Ludlow. Possibly he eventually took over the Harp Inn from his father but at some point after 1824, Edward and his family moved toMarylebone, London where he ran the New Inn at 5 Edgware Road.  Edward died in 1841.

Edward and Mary had four known children all baptised at Ludlow. – Ann born 1817 who died when she was one day old,  Edward born 1821, Thomas born 1823 and Mary born 1824.  Nothing further is known of Edward or Mary, but Thomas Whatmore  was to be very successful. He married Eliza Best Rawlinson  in 1845 in the Camberwell Registration District. Thomas became a very prosperous wine merchant, so much so that he was able to retire by the age of 47 and lived with his family in a very fine house in Cambridge Terrace, Holland Road, Kensington. These beautiful Georgina houses, covered with stucco and with pillared porches are highly desirable residences today. A 76 year lease on a two bedroom flat in one of these houses is advertised at just under half a million pounds in 2008. Thomas inherited the lands in Whatmore Township which had belonged to his parents. He died in 1900 and his wife Eliza died on 16 October 1907.

Thomas and Eliza Whatmore had five known children – Eliza Ann born 1850, who never married and eventually inherited the lands in Whatmore Township; Charles Thomas born 1846 and who died in on 29 November 1867 aged only 21 probably following an accident as  the notice in ‘The Times’ states that he died ‘after a week of intense suffering, borne with Christian fortitude’; Amy born 1852 and died in 1862; Jesse Jane born 1855  who married Samuel  Renard and had two children – Reginald 1883 and Jesse 1887; and Amelia born 1857.

2. Mary Whatmore born 1794 Ludlow (daughter of Thomas Watmore and Mary Mapp. ) Mary Junior married John Chipp on 24 December 1815 at Ludlow.

3. Ann Whatmore born 1796 Ludlow (daughter of Thomas Watmore and Mary Mapp) 

4. John Whatmore born 1802 Ludlow (son of Thomas Watmore and Mary Mapp) 

John married Emma Francis Whatmore who had been born in 1808 at Bridgnorth and who was the sister of Joseph Lloyd Whatmore who became Mayor of Bridgnorth.   They married on 7 May 1833 at St Mary Magdalen’s church, Bridgnorth.

John was a baker and had his shop in Broad Street, Ludlow next door to the Angel Hotel. The building still survives. The desk on which John used to pay out the wages to his employees also survives and belongs to one of his descendants.

John Whatmore’s baker’s shop, Broad Steet, Ludlow    Copyright: Peter Saunders and reproduced here by his kind permission

In August 1840 there must have been great excitement at John Whatmore’s Baker’s shop. An attempted murder had taken place during the night at the Angel Hotel next door and the razor, now covered in blood, which the would-be murderer had used, was found lying in John Whatmore’s yard, having been thrown from one of the windows of the inn. The person attacked was a William Mackreth, whose throat was cut whilst he was asleep in bed. Apparently  the would-be murderer had intended to kill a Mr William Ludlow who was in the next bedroom to Mr. Mackreth. The attacker seems to have been a Mr Misters who knew that Mr Ludlow carried sums of money about with him. Further details of the affair are provided in the relevant issues of  ‘The Times’.

The children of John Whatmore and Emma Frances, all born at Ludlow, were Mary 1834, John 1835, Emma 1836, Harriet, 1837, Lydia 1839, Ellen 1841, Hubert 1843, Joseph Edward 1847 and Charles Walter 1850.

John was only about 51 when he died on 27 November 1853. His widow Emma Frances moved to Birmingham where she lived with Emma, her unmarried daughter. Emma Francis died on 27 March 1890 at 8 Barker Street, Lozells, Ashton and is buried at Keyhills Cemetery, Lozells (Plot 227n).

Emma Francis’s children who survived to adulthood moved with her to Birmingham.

Her son John Whatmore became a Grocer at Aston. He married Hannah Pope in 1860 at St Martins, Birmingham. They had one child - Frederick John Whatmore, born in 1861. He married Betty Jane Sarcens and they moved Leamington where Frederick was a butcher. They had two children – Beatrice Whatmore, born 1885 and Dorothy 1891 and Irene Lydia (Trene) Whatmore born 1894 who emigrated to New Zealand.

 Emma Frances’ son Joseph Edward married an Emma and worked as a Ladies’ Outfitter in Birmingham. They had two children Frances Elizabeth Whatmore 1879 and Dora Alice Whatmore 1881.

Emma Frances’ son Hubert Whatmore married an Elizabeth Ann Hopkins.

 5. Elizabeth Whatmore  born 1805 (daughter of Thomas Watmore and Mary Mapp) 

 Broad Street, Ludlow   Copyright: Peter Saunders and reproduced here by his kind permission

6. William Whatmore born 1808 ( son of Thomas Watmore and Mary Mapp) 

William was one of the few Whatmores in Ludlow eligible to vote and his name is shown in the poll books for 1835 and 1837. He married a Sarah and lived at Tower Street, Ludlow where he had a house and a shop. He died in 1840 and Sarah remarried in 1841 to a Charles Brown who took over William’s grocer’s shop in Tower Street. Sarah died in 1872.

William and Sarah Whatmore had two known children – William 1833 and Louisa 1839.

William Whatmore, son of William and Sarah married a Mary from Ludlow. They moved to London where they lived in Hampstead Road, close to where the Euston Tower now stands. William was a haberdasher, hosier and shirtmaker. They had only one known child - Emily Louisa Whatmore who was born in 1859. She was only 20 when she died  on 15 December1879 and she is commemorated by a stained glass window in St Pancras New Church, in Woburn Place, London. This is the only stained glass window to a Whatmore which exists to my knowledge.

 The memorial window to Emily Louisa Whatmore in St Pancras New Church, Woburn Place, London    Copyright: John R Salmon and reproduced here by his kind permission.

 7. Helen Whatmore born 1815 (daughter of Thomas Watmore and Mary Mapp)  

8. Henry Whatmore born 1817 (son of Thomas Watmore and Mary Mapp)

Henry Whatmore seems to have quite enterprising, but he doesn’t appear to have been as successful as other members of this family.  he married  Harriet Smith form Morville in 1838 in the Wolverhampton Registartion District. The family lived at Bridgnorth until at least 1842, Henry working as a baker. They then headed for London and were at Paddington by 1844. In 1851 they were at Giltspur Street in the City of London  and henery i9s decsriobed in the cenmsus as a retailer of beer. In 1861 they were at marylebone, Henry being a proprietor of cabs. In 1871, they were at Lambeth, henry being a cabman. In 1881 they were at Newington, Henry now working as a waterman. Henry’s wife died in 1887 and he went to live with his married daughter Elizabeth in Newington. Henry died in 1897 in the Camberwell Registration District.

The children of Henry and Harriet were: Louisa 1839, Emma 1840, George Henry 1841, Mary 1842, Francis Caroline 1844, Thomas 1846, Elizabeth Sarah 1852, William  1854 and Louisa 1859.