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The earliest ancestor of Huntington-Whiteley Baronet, given in Burke's Peerage is George Whiteley of Mayfield House, Halifax. What is not stated in Burke is that this George is listed in Walker's Directory of the Parish of Halifax of 1845. This book was published by Ryburn Publishing Ltd. in 1991, a reproduction of the Directory published by James Uriah Walker , printer and owner of The Halifax Guardian Newspaper from 1832. In it, on page 58, George Whiteley is listed as a partner or member of the firm John Whiteley & Sons, and the address of Mayfield house is given as King Cross Street.. On the same page the firm John Whiteley & Sons is listed as wire manufacturers and card makers in Winding Road. John A Hargreaves' book HALIFAX published by Edinburgh University Press in 1999, reproduces two photographs (pages 119-120) of the factory interior of John Whiteley & Sons Ltd., card makers, whose premises were at Brunswick Mills in 1894. The firm was founded in July 1791 (page 120). There is no indication from these sources whether George Whiteley of Mayfield House was one of the sons of John, but they do make obvious the industrial origins of the Huntington-Whiteley family. The sure way to trace George's origin is to locate him in the Census of 1841 and 1851, knowing that he was a director or partner in the cardmaking business. This will establish his year of birth, and with this his baptism may be traced from one of the non-conformist churches in Halifax, as I think will be prove to be the case (see below), since it did not occur at Halifax Parish Church itself. The firm moved from Winding Road to Brunswick Mills in the 1840's (Hargreaves, ibid. page 120). The name Huntington was introduced into the family on the marriage of the first baronet, as appears from Burke's Peerage - see therein Marchamley, Baron, lineage, Huntington-Whiteley, baronet. Winding Road is in the centre of Halifax near the old North Gate Presbyterian Church, later taken over by the Unitarians. In this vicinity is also Square congregational Church, of which now only the spire survives as a monument. Mayfield House is a few hundred yards away from Brunswick Mills. King Cross Road runs from the centre of the town in a westerly direction. Another member of this family given in Walker's Directory (page 58) is Joseph Whiteley (W. John & Sons) resident at Kirkby Leas in Halifax. No relationship is given, the inference being that he was a partner or director of the carding firm along with George. George must have been born about 1800 and married about 1824. His son George (born about 1825) is given in Burke's Peerage as married to Margaret Pickup in 1853. They are the parents of George Whiteley, member of Parliament for Morley and Chief Whip of the Liberal Party under Asquith, later ennobled as Baron Marchamley, and of Herbert James Whiteley, later Sir Herbert James Huntington-Whiteley,baronet.. The Lords Marchamley do not carry the double barrelled name, the son and heir of the present and fourth lord being simply the Hon. Leon Whiteley. A search in the International Genealogical Index show the following children baptised of John and Nancy Whiteley baptised at Square Congregational Church, Halifax: Mary, 1 September 1781; Nathan 4 September 1784; Betty 13 January 1787; John 8 May 1791; Joseph, 22 September 1792; Susy 7 December 1794; George 9 December 1798. The birth of George is given as 12 November 1798 and his mother's name as Ann (an alternate form of Nancy). This is the only family from the IGI to accommodate Joseph and George as sons of John, and an identification with the cardmaking family. Cardmaking was the manufacture of wire brushes used for carding wool - to prepare it for spinning. A search in the Calderdale Family History Society disc for Halifax Parish Church 1754-1812 shows the marriage of John Whiteley, cardmaker of Southowram, to Nancy Fletcher of Halifax town 13 August 1781. The baptism of the groom John Whiteley is given in the same record as 23 September 1759, son of Nathan Whiteley, collier of Southowram. If this is the correct origin of the eighteenth century family, it will be recognised that the social rise of the family took place in politics in the nineteenth, and not before, and it took place on opposite sides of the party spectrum. George, later Lord Marchamley, was a Liberal; his brother, Herbert James, later Baronet, was a Conservative. The line of Nathan Whiteley,collier of Southowram (open-cast coal mining began in Northowram and Southowram (northowram was inocrporated into the Borough of Halifax in 1900 - Hargreaves, ibid. p. 116), may be followed through his marriage at Halifax parish church to Mary Jackson on 13 January 1759, and his baptism at the same church on 5 March 1737, where his parents Nathan Whiteley and Betty Firth were married in April 1730. That the family was established in Southowram is shown by the baptisms at Halifax parish church of seven children of John Whiteley of Southowram, collier, 1768-1785. In the parish church records is also recorded the burial of john Whiteley, cardmaker, 28 Februuary 1777. The surname Whiteley, spelt with two e's" should not be confused with Whitley, spelt with one "e", a family also resident in Halifax parish. A study of both surnames in the parish registers shows reasonably clearly that Whitley occupied the townships of Northowram, Hipperholme and Shelf on the east side of the parish, from the 16th century. Whiteley entered Halifax somewhat later from the West, specifically Elland parish. Nathan Whiteley of 1730, whose family spelt their surname consistently with two "e's" I would therefore regard as immediately or ultimately traceable to Elland and its townships neighbouring Ripponden. The date of migration is, however, difficult owing to the absence of census and other records of that time regarding the movements of journeymen. Contributed by John Stephen Whiteley kathstep@mweb.co.za