John Whitson, MP

John Whitson (c. 1555 – 1629) was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1605 and 1626. He is buried in the Crypt of St Nicholas church in the City of Bristol.

He married three times; one of his wives was the grandmother of John Aubrey, the antiquary and naturalist. In 1603 explorer Martin Pring named “Whitson’s Bay”, now Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts, after him. He wrote "The Aged Christian's final farewell to the world and its vanities," which was first published in 1729, one hundred years after his death.

The Red Maid's School in Bristol was founded from his legacy. “The Red Maids’ School, founded in 1634, became a Bristol institution and the oldest existing girls' school in the country. It was the vision of its founder, Mayor and MP of Bristol, John Whitson. A wealthy merchant, he tragically outlived all three of his daughters. Perhaps because of this, he left his estate for the foundation of The Red Maids’ Hospital. In his will Whitson wrote that this unique establishment would be created for "40 poor women and children". He also said that they would be "apparelled in red" – a cloth that he himself manufactured. Whitson’s financial legacy continues to the present day. It funds scholarships and bursaries, which Redmaids’ High School gives to girls from a wide range of backgrounds. ...”

Biography

WHITSON, John (c.1554-1629), of St. Nicholas Street, Bristol, Glos.

Family and Education

b. c.1554,1 s. of William Whitson of Clearwell, Newland, Glos. ?educ. Newland g.s.; appr. Bristol 1570. m. (1) 12 Apr. 1585, Bridget (d.1608), da. of Robert Saxey, merchant, of Bristol, wid. of Nicholas Cutt, merchant, of Bristol, 3da. d.v.p.; (2) 21 Sept. 1609 (with £500), Magdalen (bur. 19 Sept. 1615), da. of Thomas Barber, Salter, of London, wid. of William Hynde, Salter, of London, s.p.; (3) 18 May 1617 (?with £2,000), Rachel (bur. 18 Sept. 1654), da. of Richard Danvers of Tockenham, Wilts., wid. of John Aubrey of Burlton Court, Burghill, Herefs., s.p.2 d. 27 Feb. 1629.3 sig. John Whitsone.

http://www.davenapier.co.uk/mayors/whitson.htm

John Whitson was born in the Forest of Dean in 1555 but was orphaned at an early age. It is said that he arrived in Bristol on a boat at the age of 12. In 1570 he was taken on as an apprentice to John Cutte who was a wine merchant. Cutte died of the plague in 1575 and when his son Nicholas died, John Whitson "siezed his chance" and married Cutte's widow, Bridget. In addition to being MP for Bristol five times, he belonged to the Merchant Venturers, was elected Sheriff of Bristol in 1589 and served two terms as Mayor in 1603 and 1615. He died in 1629 following a fall from his horse; his will provided for "40 poor women children" to be schooled and "be apparelled in red cloth". This school was opened in 1634 in a building off college green but in 1660 a new building was erected in Denmark street. The school moved to Westbury-on-Trym in 1911 and in 2009 celebrated its 375th anniversary.

Whitson is remembered each November by the girls of the school (which is the oldest girls school in England) when they march through the streets of Bristol on "Founders Day" - which actually commemorates Whitson's survival from an attempt on his life - in 1626 he was attacked by a man called Christopher Callowhill who stabbed him in the face.

- Most of the above was extracted from articles in the 'Bristol Times' (a regular section published in the Bristol Evening Post newspaper) November 16th 2009.

By the terms of his will, drawn up in March 1627, Whitson provided for his third wife Rachel, whom he appointed as his executrix, but having no surviving children he left much of his estate to charity, according to a settlement made in 1622. The fact that all three of his own children had been girls, and that one of them had died in childbirth, appears to have strongly influenced the nature of two of his bequests.

References

• “The aged Christian's final farewell to the world and its vanities. To which ...“ By John Whitson. Page 65 Googlebooks
• The British Museum John Whitson (1557 - 1629). Merchant, philanthropist, MP and Mayor of Bristol, best known for founding the Red Maids' School (q.v.) in 1634.
• Patrick McGrath “John Whitson and the Merchant Community of Bristol,” The University of Bristol, 1970. (best resource)
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98331709/john-whitson
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whitson
• https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/w...
• “Alderman John Whitson: his life and times.” (Second edition.). Page 6-7. GoogleBooks
• The Project Gutenberg EBook of Brief Lives (Vol. 2 of 2), by John Aubrey. “John Whitson.” (Also attached)
• Red Maids School Founder's Day 2013. On Friday 15 November, almost 600 students from Years 3 to 13, gathered at the Welsh Back. Wearing traditional dress, the girls were preparing to march through Bristol city centre to mark the school's founder, Lord Mayor and MP of Bristol John Whitson. The day began with a memorial service in St Nicholas Crypt, where a wreath was placed on John Whitson’s tomb by the school’s Head Girls. The whole school then marched to Bristol Cathedral for a service of thanksgiving. The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, the Dean of Bristol, welcomed the congregation and led the sermon, and Canon Stuart Taylor took the Bidding Prayer. In keeping with tradition, the service included the reading of an extract from John Whitson's Will.  
• “ The Colonial Charting of the Massachusetts Coast” “Even before the Sieur de Monts and Champlain arrived in 1604, the English were active along the New England coast. The so-called Virginia Company chart, drawn about 1610 and now in the New York Public Library, shows the New England coast in considerable detail, with Cape Cod (“C. Kod”) curved at the tip, prominently featuring the name given to it in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold and Bartholomew Gilbert; and “Witstan bay” (Whitson’s Bay), the name given a harbor (Provincetown) in Cape Cod Bay by Pring in 1603.“
• “Alderman Whitson's House, St James', Bristol” 1832-1833 artist: WILLIAM JAMES MÜLLER
• JF Nicholls and John Taylor, Bristol Past and Present (Bristol: Arrowsmith, 1882). Text available at the Internet Archive
• ”Rosier's Relation of Waymouth's Voyage to the Coast of Maine, 1605” By James Rosier. Page 11. GoogleBooks “ Here also he found no sassafras, and he "bare into that greate Gulfe [Massachusetts Bay] which Captaine Gosnold ouer-shot the yeere before, coasting and finding people on the North side thereof. Not yet satisfied in our expectation, we left them and sailed ouer, and came to Anchor on the South side, in the latitude of 41 degrees and odde minutes; where we went on Land in a certaine Bay, which we called Whitson Bay, by the name of the Worshipfull Master John Whitson, then Maior of the Citie of Bristoll, and one of the chiefe Adventurers, and finding a pleasant Hill thereunto adioyning, wee called it Mount Aldworth, for Master Robert Aldworth’s sake, a chiefe furtherer of the Voyage, as well with his Purse as with his Trauell. Here we had a sufficient quantitye of Sassafras."15 Bancroft and Palfrey, following Belknap, identify Whitson's Bay with the harbor of Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, which is in the latitude of 410, 25'. The language of Pring's narrative, however, seems to indicate that he passed from the north to the south side of the "greate Gulfe," and Dr. B. F. DeCosta,17 more accurately, perhaps, identifies Whitson's Bay with Plymouth Harbor, and " the pleasant Hill adioyning " with " Captain's Hill. ...”
• “The Genesis of the United States: A Narrative of the Movement in ...,”. Volume 2. By Alexander Brown. Page 1052 GoogleBooks page 972 GoogleBooks “ In the voyage to our New England coast, March '20 to October 2, 1603, Martin Pring was master of the Speedwell, and chief commander in the voyage ; and as he was then regarded (in his 23d year) as "a man very sufficient for the place," he had probably been bred to the sea, and was familiar with the Atlantic Ocean. The map (CLVIII.) will throw some light on this voyage. Pring named Whitson's Bay, for Master John Whitson, then mayor of Bristol, and one of the chief adventurers in the voyage. He was the founder of the Red Maid's School, Bristol. The bay is now called Cape Cod Bay. "Pring carried to England an Indian canoe, and reported the land he had visited to be full of God's good blessings."
• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/tr... “ b. c.1575, 1st s. of George Trenchard I of Wolveton by his 1st w. educ. Magdalen Coll. Oxf. 1588; M. Temple 1594. m. (1) Elizabeth, [SIC: Bridget] da. of John Whitson, alderman of Bristol, s.p.; ..
• “The New England Historical and Genealogical Register,” Volume 55. Page 433. GoogleBooks The Will of John Burroughs of London, gent., one of the Procurators of the Court of Arches., London. Dated 22 March 1613(4). ... “I give to my brother-in-law Mr. Whitson, and Magdalen his wife, to my cousin Mrs. Allen, to my aunt Stoakes, to to my cousin Robert Holland, and Katherine his wife, to my cousin Jonathan Burrough, to Mrs. Thurston and Mrs. Walsall, 30s. each.....”
• ” Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth): Their Ancestors ...” By Francis Nottidge MacNamara. Page 540-1. GoogleBooks. Maria Danvers, wife of Richard, died in the year 1622. In her will (Swan, 19) she is described as a widow of Tockenham Wyke, Wilts. She leaves legacies to the poor of Lynam and Tockenham; to her sister, Barbara Bushopp, a widow; to her son Thomas, a gold ring; to her daughter Margaret, wife of Anthony Browne, of Broadchalk, Wilts, a silver bowl; to her daughter Rachel, wife of John Whitson, Alderman of Bristol, a gilt salt. Alderman Whitson is executor and residuary legatee. Will proved February 14, 1622-23. One of the witnesses to the will is Richard Awbery. This Richard was grandson to Maria Danvers, being the son of her daughter Rachel by her first husband, John Aubrey of Burwelton.
• “Brief romances from Bristol history, with a few other papers, by J.L.” By Joseph Leech. Page 178 - 181. GoogleBooks The Bristol Alderman and his Step-Daughter. [John Whitson, the founder of the Red Maids'Hospital, who died in 1629, owing to injuries received by a fall from his horse while riding near his country house at Ashton, in Wiltshire, disinherited his step-daughter, Sarah Hynde, the child of his second wife, for marrying against his wish, alleging as his reason for so doing that she refused to be ruled by him in the matter of her marriage. Whitson's residence in Bristol was in Nicholas Street, late the Queen-Bess public-house, but now forming part of the Athenæum Chambers.]
• “Apparelled in Red: The History of the Red Maids' School.” Jean Vanes. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2014 - 226 pages. GoogleBooks This work tells the story of a school and a very unusual one, the Red Maids' School at Bristol. Founded 350 years ago by a local merchant and with detailed records of its long history, its story is that of the education of girls throughout the past four centuries.