This is a younger branch of an ancient family formerly seated at Whittimere or Whitmore, in the parish of Claverley, where it is traced to the reign of Henry III. The Apley branch made a large fortune by mercantile transactions in London in the reign of Elizabeth, and purchased that estate in 1572, from Sir Thomas Lucy, Knight. The Whitmores have represented Bridgnorth in Parliament constantly since the reign of Charles II. Blakeway observes that this family does not appear to have had any connection with the Whitmores of Cheshire, though the Heralds have given them similar arms, with a crest allusive to the springing of a young shoot out of an old stock.
Younger Branches. Whitmore of Dudmaston, in this county, and Whitmore-Jones, of Chastleton, in the county of Oxford.
See Blakeway, p. 106, and Notes on the Whitmore Family, in Notes and Queries, 3rd series, v. p. 159.
Arms.—Vert, fretty or.
Present Representative, Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq.
Walcot of Bitterley.
The name is derived from Walcot in the parish of Lydbury, which was held under the Bishop of Hereford by Roger de Walcot in 1255. He was the ancestor of the present family. Sixth in descent from Roger de Walcot was John Walcot, of whom the pedigree relates, "that playing at Chess with King Henry V. he gave him the check-mate with the rooke, whereupon the King changed his coat of arms, which was the cross with fleurs-de-lis, and gave him the rooke for a remembrance." Walcot was sold in the year 1764, and Bitterley, which had belonged to the family in 1660, became the seat of the Walcots, descended from Humphry Walcot, who died in 1616, and who was the eldest son of John Walcot of Walcot. He had livery of the manor of Walcot in 1611, "on the extinction (says Blakeway,) I suppose of the elder line."
See Blakeway, p. 112; and Morris MSS.