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 1313, and widow of Thomas Berkeley of Cubberley, who held the same office at least three times (List of Sheriffs, p. 49; Cal. Inq. post mortem, ii. 172). Whittington bore the arms of the Pauntley family with a mark of cadency and a difference of tincture and crest (, pp. 7, 96), and lent a large sum of money to Philip Mansell, Joan's brother, in 1386 (, p. 176). A little difficulty is involved in the fact that though he can only have been the third son of Sir William and Joan Mansell, and hardly born before 1359, Whittington was already a substantial London citizen in 1379 (cf., p. 96, pedigree). Sir William Whittington was an outlaw in 1359, and it has been suggested that his offence was marrying without license Berkeley's widow, who survived him and died in 1372 (Cal. Inq. post mortem, ii. 217, 323, iii. 454). Their eldest son, William, died without issue in 1398–9 (ib. iii. 235), leaving the estates to his next brother, Robert, whose descendants still hold land in Gloucestershire.

Nothing is known of Whittington's settlement and early life in London. The legend converts the Dorsetshire knight, his father-in-law, into a London merchant and his master, which Sir Walter Besant accepts as historical fact. But his first authentic appearance belongs to 1379, when he contributed five marks to a city loan (, p. 534). By trade a mercer, we find him supplying the household of the Earl of Derby, afterwards Henry IV, with velvets and damasks (, iv. 159, 162–3). In 1385, and again in 1387, he sat in the common council as a representative of Coleman Street ward (, p. 535). Two years later he became surety to the chamberlain for 10l. towards the defence of the city. In March 1393 he was chosen alderman for Broad Street ward, and served as sheriff in 1393–4 (ib. p. 535;, p. 538; , iii. 65). When Adam Bamme, the mayor of 1397, died during his term of office, the king appointed (8 June) Whittington to fill his place until the next election (Fœdera, vii. 856;, p. 542). A month later Richard's long-deferred vengeance descended upon the lords appellant, and Whittington had to assemble the city militia to accompany the king to Pleshy to arrest the Duke of Gloucester (Annales, p. 203). It would be rash perhaps to infer that he was a thoroughgoing royal partisan, in view of his last instructions to the members of his college, directing them to pray for the souls both of King Richard and the Duke of Gloucester, ‘his special lords and promoters’ (Monasticon, vi. 740). In October he was elected mayor for the ensuing year, thus holding office continuously for a year and five months at a time of great excitement in the city, provoked by the king's arbitrary proceedings (, p. 542). His name headed the humiliating submission extorted from the citizens (, p. 100). Richard, when deposed, owed Whittington a thousand marks, which he was fortunate enough to get repaid (, i. 64). His wealth made him very useful to Henry IV in his chronic pecuniary difficulties. The minutes of the privy council record his presence with William Brampton, another citizen, at a meeting on 15 June 1400, and there was some idea of summoning him to a great council in the following year (Ord. Privy Council, i. 122, 163). He furnished cloth of gold and other mercery for the bridal outfits of Henry's daughters married abroad in 1401 and 1406, and frequently advanced to the crown large sums of money on loan, on one occasion no less than 6,400l. (, p. 87;, ii. 442, 448, iii. 65; Ord. Privy Council, ii. 107, 114). As mayor of the staple at London and Calais and a collector of the customs and subsidy in both ports, he held good security for the repayment of his loans (, iii. 65;, Issues, p. 322). Henry V also borrowed from Whittington and gave him various proofs of his confidence, entrusting the expenditure of the funds set aside for the restoration of the nave of Westminster Abbey to him with a single colleague, and forbidding the mayor of 1415 to pull down any buildings in the city without consulting Whittington and three others (Fœdera, ix. 79; Ord. Privy Council, ii. 169). But his knighthood is as legendary as his burning the royal bonds.

Whittington was mayor for the second time (third if his short tenure of the office in 1397 be counted) in 1406–7 (, p. 565), and for the last time in 1419–20 (ib. p. 676). Lysons asserts (p. 50) that he represented London in one of the parliaments of 1416, but no returns seem to exist (List of Members, i. 287–8). In his last years he was very active in prosecuting the forestallers of meat and sellers of dear ale (Cotton. MS. Galba B 5).

On 5 Sept. 1421 Whittington made his will (, p. 80). He attended the city elections in the autumn of 1422, but died, it would seem, in the early days of the following March (ib. p. 71). His will was proved on the 8th of that month (ib. p. 80). In accordance with its directions he was buried on the north side of the high altar in the church of St. Michael de Paternoster-church in Riola, for whose collegiation he pro-