Robert Whitaker

Find A Grave Memorial# 156642557

"In 1672 when Margaret (Lisle) was 29, she married Robert WHITAKER in Dibden, Hampshire, England: Born in 1637 in Lancashire, England.

Christened on 19 May 1637 in Symondstone, Padiham, Lancashire, England.

Robert died in England in 1683; he was 46. Occupation: Gentleman And Clergyman."

Other references say he was born 29 March 1637 and died January 1718 in Burgate.

Education: Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, England.

"The Descendants of Alice Lisle" by Robert Marillier, The Genealogist, vol. VI (London, 1882), p. 14 (of 12-15): "Robert Whitaker, son of Robt. W. of Reade, co. Lanc. Bap. At Padiham 19 May 1638. Admitted at Magd. Coll., Cambr., 30 June 1656. Ejected by the Act of Uniformity 1662. Settled at Burgate (Fordingbridge), co. Hants, where he kept an academy, and was first minister of the Dissenting congregation there and d. Jan. 1718. His wife Margaret bur. At Fordingbridge 27 Mar. 1686."

"1672 Marriage: Margaret Lisle married the Reverend Robert Whitaker, a scholarly churchman from Lancashire. Denied a Cambridge degree because of his Nonconformity, he preached as a Presbyterian from about 1662, when he set up an Academy for Dissenting Students for those refused entry to the universities. He and Margaret lived at Stucton, a village near Fordingbridge. They were married at Dibden in 1672. Due to wartime fires the records are somewhat singed. Robert came from a long line Whitakers from Padiham in Lancashire. (Rutherfurd muddled him up too.)

"1686 Death: Margaret was buried on 27 March 1686, a fortnight after giving birth to Robert. Margaret never received the 70 pounds willed to her by her mother [who was beheaded the previous year]."

The Regicide’s Widow: Lady Alice Lisle and the Bloody Assize (2006) by Anthony Whitaker:

Reverend Robert Whitaker, a scholarly churchman from Lancashire. Denied a Cambridge degree because of his Nonconformity, he preached as a Presbyterian from about 1662, when he set up an Academy for Dissenting Students for those refused entry to the universities. He and Margaret lived at Stucton, a village near Fordingbridge.

Robert Whitaker was prosecuted by the Fordingbridge church wardens in March 1679 for not attending church, and was excommunicated on 2 May. An arrest warrant followed in Sept, and while there is no record of its being implemented, it is clear that he and his family (wife and several children) suffered.

WHITAKER LINEAGE

Several slight variations of the Whitaker family tree are found online, but most of them connecting back to the ancient pedigree of the Whitakers of Holme. Most all seem to agree in showing Rev. Robert Whitaker as a grandson of the learned Rev. William Whitaker of Trinity College, Cambridge.

"No English divine of the sixteenth century surpassed Whitaker in the estimation of his contemporaries," says Wikipedia, and "Ralph Churton justly styles him 'the pride and ornament of Cambridge.'" Two portraits of him hung at Cambridge.

Rev. William Whitaker's son Rev. Alexander Whitaker, uncle of Rev. Robert Whitaker, was called the "Apostle of Virginia," and is often described as having baptised Pocahontas and to have performed her marriage to sir John Rolfe. A painting of the baptism of Pocahontas hangs in the rotunda of the U.S. capitol in Washington, D.C. Alexander was also the author of "Good News From Virginia" (London, 1613), one of the first books, if not the first, written in Virginia or America.

Two books give Robert Whitaker's father's name as William, rather than Robert Sr. as Marillier and ThePeerage.com show:

• 1. "Whitakers, 1086-1990" by Bill Whitaker.
• 2. "The Whitaker Family of Buncombe County, NC and Genealogies of Reed, Harper, and Wright Families" by Bruce Whitaker.

Family trees on Ancestry.com give Rev. William Whitaker's lineage:

• Thomas Whitaker 1504-98 of Holme, Cliviger, Lancashire
  • + Elizabeth Nowell, dau of John Nowell & Eliz Kay of Read Hall, Lancashire
• Rev. William Whitaker 1547-95 of Holme & Cambridge
  • +2 Joan (Taylor) Fenner (+1 Susan Culverwell)
• Robert Whitaker b1591 of Padiham
  • +Mary Liversidge
• Rev. Robert Whitaker 1638-1718
  • + Margaret Lisle of Moyles Court