THE lFAMILY OJF WHAT'rON A Record ef Nine Centuries Being a reprint of articles by Henry Watkinson Whatton in TheGentleman'sMagazineof1825, with additions, continuations, and illustrative documents by J. S. Whatton, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge, F.R. Hist. Soc., assisted by the Rev. W. G. D. Fletcher, M.A., St Edmund Hall, Oxford, F.S.A. Followed by a Little Autobiography by the former, and preceded by an Introduction by 0. F. Christie,M.A., Trinity College, Oxford, Author of The Transitionfrom Aristocracy, etc. PUBLISHED BY THE SYLVAN PRESS AND PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY HENDERSON AND SPALDING LTD SYLVAN GROVE CAMBERWELL LONDO:- SE 15 THE FAMILY OF WHATTON For inquire, I pray thee, ef the former age, and apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out, for we are but qf yesterday, and know nothing. --- JOB viii, 8 (Revised Version). WHATTON ALLIANCES From a coloured drawing by Harriet Sophia Whatton TO MY vVIFE MY OKLY BOOK When the making of this Book was undertaken, and until after the greater part of it had been written, and was in type, it was intended to produce it for private circulation only. When subsequently it was suggested to the author that it might be found of interest to others beyond his own circle, no change was made, and it appears as it was originally planned. The Parish Church of St John of Beverley, Whatton-in-the-Vale. From a recent photograph ERRATA Page 22, line 11, for 1765 read 1675. Page 46. Mrs Tacker. John Seddon had a daughter, who married~ Boardman, whose daughter married Col. Tacker. CONTENTS PAGE Introduction by 0. F. Christie x1 Preface xm The Articles from The Gentleman's Magazine 1 Pedigrees registered and approved by the College of Arms: Royal Descen1 of Whatton from Charle­ magne, William the Conqueror, and Henry III 43 General Whatton Pedigree as from the Visitation ofLeicestershire in 1683 facing 48 Other Pedigrees: Pedigree showing Descent from four families in that Visitation. w. G. D. F... 45 Pedigree, Piercy-Ingle-Swift. J. s. w. 48 Pedigree, Seddon-Scott-Whatton. J. s. w. 46 General Notes on the Family 49 ME, an Autobiography 109 Miscellaneous Writings 121 Appendices- A. Whatton entries in Nichols's History of Leicestershire 14 I B. Extract from Burton's Leicestershire, 1 777 1 47 C. Further General Notes. 148 D. Verses from The Gentleman's Magazine, 1818, by W. R. Whatton 152 lX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Whatton Alliances . Frontispiece Facing page The Church of Whatton-in-the-Vale IX Tomb of John Whatton, St Martin's, Leicester XXl-· Brotherton, Kincardineshire .. XXV- Henry Whatton of Loughborough Parks •• XXVll = Tomb of Sir Richard de Whatton 7~ Tomb of Sir William and Lady Bagot 9 .• Tomb of Lady Whatton, Cheshunt 21.. - Rev. Henry Whatton 23. Elizabeth Watkinson 25 .. Loughborough Parks 27v Loughborough Parish Church .. 53 William Robert Whatton 57--· Children of John Swift .. 67- Rev. Arundell Blount Whatton 69- Rothley Temple .. 85~ Rackley Manor .. 91- East Tisted Rectory 97- Manormead, South Front 105- A Railway Conference .. 1 I I·· Sketch by Joseph Pennell I 13 _ Mrs John Whatton 117, Manormead, Rose Garden I 19- John Swift Whatton l20v Manormead, East Front 139- XI INTRODUCTION THE CELEBRATED Mrs Thrale once remarked that few persons, if asked offhand, could give the maiden names of their four great­ grandmothers. Doubtless very few, but probably any one of her acquaintance, who (like herself) belonged to an ancient family, could have answered the question after application to relatives or to family records. I am afraid that if this enquiry were made of any modern youth or maiden, it is unlikely that he or she would take the trouble of investigation. Members of the younger generation, with few excep­ tions, are singularly incurious about their forbears. ' Let the dead bury their dead! 'would be their private sentiment. Moreover, our country is so rapidly changing. Ruthless taxation is now daily evicting old families from their old houses. So documents are dispersed; books and portraits disappear into the maw of America. Not only is the impulse to preserve family tradition failing, and ancestor-worship generally on the wane, but the homes-the very storehouses of tradition-are passing into other hands. The man who sells his estate in order to live more modestly at Bath or Brighton ceases to become a depository of family lore. Old inhabi­ tants no longer tell him tales of his grandsires. And what becomes of the contents of his muniment room? Therefore whoever, despite these unfavourable conditions, sets himself to collect or complete the records of his family, is under­ taking a pious and worthy task, and setting a good example. But, if he have any sense of antiquity, he will be amply repaid. In old wills and deeds, letters and memoranda, he may come upon many a curious fact, or discover many a curious individual trait, that will add fresh meaning to his family portraits. He may find out the motives that prompted marriages, the reasons for migration, what impelled one ofhis ancestors to a life of adventure, or another, who began ambitiously, to an early retirement from the world. If he have the gift of self-knowledge, he may here and there recognize the traces of some predominant racial disposition, which he himself -for weal or woe-may have inherited. For there are families that transmit their peculiar characters as faithfully as their physical features. Such curious happenings and characteristics are not wanting to these chronicles of the family ofWhatton, for which the Author has asked me to write an Introduction. For this I have indeed no qualifications having no knowledge of heraldry and being quite Xlll unlearned in genealogical lore; but the Author is such an old and good friend that I would have done my best to comply with his request, if he had written a Treatise on Relativity, or on Chinese Porcelain, or on the Monophysite Heresy, or any other subject however technical or abstruse. Fortunately for me, family history is not quite such a recondite matter. For, as there are few indi­ viduals who would fail to excite interest if their whole lives and all their inner motives were revealed, so the story of a family, which can be traced back with more or less exactitude through its vicissitudes for 900 years, ought to make a sure appeal to the intelligent, 'Mentem mortalia tangunt' The Whattons are of great antiquity. We are apt now to regard families whose fortunes date from the Industrial Revolution as well-established. Of about the same standing are those Peerages which-according to Disraeli-Pitt lavished so freely on' bankers and graziers '. To a landed family with a tenure of 200 years or more is accorded, at least in the Home Counties, a rather excep­ tional status. If we go back another two centuries we come to those who owe their greatness to the acquisition of Church lands -Cecils, Cavendishes, Russells, and many houses of lesser note. Of the times antecedent to the Reformation there are few survivors. The Wars of the Roses made wholesale slaughter of the ancient nobility and gentry; but 400 years before the Wars of the Roses William the Conqueror landed in England, and with him came Robert de Watone from Picardy. The Whattons have not, indeed, retained the lands in Nottinghamshire which the Conqueror gave to Robert, nor those in Leicestershire where they were subsequently seated. It is perhaps all the more remarkable that they have pre­ served so much of the records of their race. Indeed, it seems to me almost a miracle, having regard to foreign wars and civi.l strife, and pestilences like the Black Death, and Chancery suits and South Sea Bubbles, and the hazards of the gaming-table, and the extravagances of proprietors and their heirs, not to speak of the frequent failure of issue, that there are still English families, however few, that have tenaciously endured since the Conquest, and even longer, without parting with their lands, still calling them ' after their own names '. The principal source of information about the descent of the Whattons appears to be three Articles contributed to The Gentle­ man's Magazine in 1825 by Henry Watkinson Whatton (b. 1782) of Osmaston Cottage, Derbyshire, the son of Henry Whatton of Loughborough Parks. These have here been supplemented by General Notes on the Family contributed by the Author, which continue the chronicle to the present day. XlV Robert de Watone, who came with the Conqueror, took his surname from the lands in Nottinghamshire that were granted him. To indicate how the family touched English history through subsequent centuries, it may be useful here, without instancing every generation, to give an abbreviated list of Whattons who followed, all in direct line from Robert down. to the Author of this book: Sir William de Waton (son of Robert), knighted by Henry I and benefactor to the Priory of Blythe. Walter, a knight of the second Crusade. Richard, a warrior in the Crusades (temp. Richard I). John, High SheriffofHerts and Essex (25, 6 Henry III). Richard, High Sheriff of Notts and Derbyshire (54, 5 Henry III). Sir Richard, a soldier who fought against Lancaster and the rebellious barons (14, 15 Edward II). Sir Richard (temp. Edward III). Sir John, of Long Whatton in Leicestershire (temp. Henry IV). John, M.P. for Leicestershire (38 Henry VI). Robert, of Long Whatton, whose grandson John passed his lands at Long Whatton to his cousin Robert. (Robert's line seems to have ended with heiresses.) John, of Raunstone, an Esquire of the Body to Charles I, High Sheriff of Leicestershire ( 14 Charles I), married a Babington of Rothley Temple, d.