The Name Whitmore


The name Whitmore is derived from a Gothic king, Wid (spear)-Mar (famous), famous-with-the-spear.  As early as 1215, at the signing of the Great Charter at Runymeade by King John, the name appears in English records.
Whitmore Halll is situated in the village of Whitmore, Staffordshire, England, 146 miles from London, and five miles from New-Castle-under-Lyme. By a marriage between the families of Whitmore and Mainwaring the Manor passed into the succession of the Mainwarings, who held it in 1852.  It is said that a direct lineal descendant of the Whitmores occupies it at this date.
The early proprietors of the Manor were called Lords of Whytemore.  John DeWhitmore was Mayor of Chester, 1369-1372, and Sir George Whitmore was Mayor of London in 1632. From the Whitmores of England came the family of Whittemore, who changed the spelling of the name from Whitmore, and while in this country they are a distinct family, they have the same origin.
While it has not been possible to trace the English origin of the American family of Whitmore, the similarity in family names leaves little doubt they were from the Staffordshire Whitmores.
Tradition says that two brothers, Sir George and John, came to this country in the early 1630's.
Sir George, a bachelor, was a government officer in Nova Scotia, and lived at Halifax.  While on a voyage from Halifax to Massachusetts, supposedly to settle in estate on his brother, he was drowned.
A field in Nova Scotia heirs the name of Whitmore's Field.  Mr. Edwin P. Whitmore, in 1891, then at the age of 83, writes: "I remember hearing my grandfather tell of an advertisement calling on all people of the name of Whitmore in the States and Provinces to claim certain moneys or property belonging to said Sir George."