Perhaps his most important service was his census of the city of Dublin, which he undertook in 1798, and carried through successfullyin the face of many difficulties and dangers, publishing the results of his investigationin 1805 in his admirable 'Essay on the Population of Dublin in 1798' (Dublin, 8vo). Epidemic diseases were then frequent in Dublin, but, undeterred by the fear of infection,he personally inspected every house in the city and questioned nearly every inhabitant. Hitherto the extent of the population had been only vaguely conjectured. He found in one house alone 108 people. The government ordered the results of his inquiryto be printed, while the original papers were deposited in Dublin Castle. In 1805 he was made one of the members of the commissionto inquire into the conduct of the paving board of Dublin. He received from John Law (1745-1810) [q. v.], bishop of Elphin, the valuable living of Castlereagh, which he was allowed to hold jointly with that of St. Catherine's. He died of a malignant fever, contracted while visiting poor parishioners, on 4 Feb. 1813. The governmentconferred a pension of 200l. a year upon his widow.
The work with which Whitelaw's name is most frequently associated is the valuable 'History of Dublin,' in which he collaborated with John Warburton, keeper of the records in Dublin Castle. Warburton did the more ancient portion of the work; Whitelaw undertook the modern part. Both Whitelaw and Warburton died, however, before it was published, and it was completed by Robert Walsh [q. v.] It was published in 1818 in two large quarto volumes. Whitelaw's other works are 'Parental Solicitude' (Dublin, 1800?, 12mo); ' A System of Geography,'of which the maps only (engraved by himself) were published; and 'An Essay on the best method of ascertaining Areas of Countries of any considerable Extent' ('Transactions of Royal Irish Academy,' vol. vi.)
[Whitelaw and Walsh's Hist. of Dublin, vol. i.; Allibone's Dict. of Lit.; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; Gilbert's Hist. of Dublin; Register of Trinity College, Dublin.]
WHITELOCKE, BULSTRODE (1605–1675), keeper of the great seal, eldest son of Sir James Whitelocke [q. v.] and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Bulstrode of Hedgerley Bulstrode, Buckinghamshire, was born at his uncle Sir George Croke's house in Fleet Street on 6 Aug. 1605, and christened at St. Dunstan's-in-the-East on 19 Aug. (Sir James Whitelocke, Liber Famelicus, p. 15; Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, v. 369). He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' school in 1615, and matriculated at Oxford on 8 Dec. 1620 as a member of St. John's College (Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, i. 1620). Dr. Parsons was Whitelocke's tutor, and Laud, who was then president of St. John's and was his father's friend, took great interest in his education, which Whitelocke subsequently requited by refusing to take part in the prosecution of the archbishop (Memorials, i. 219). He recreated himself with music and field sports, joining other members of the college to maintain a pack of beagles (R. H. Whitelocke, Memoirs of Bulstrode Whitelocke, pp. 6–11). Whitelocke left Oxford without a degree, and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1626. He represented Stafford in the parliament of 1626. At Christmas 1628 he was chosen master of the revels and treasurer of the Middle Temple, and in 1633, when the four inns of court joined together to perform a masque before the king and queen, he and his friend Edward Hyde represented the Middle Temple on the committee (ib. pp. 56–62; Memorials, i. 31, 53–62). Whitelocke had ‘the whole care and charge of all the music for this great masque, which was so performed that it excelled any music that ever before that time had been heard in England.’ But while distinguishing himself socially he did not forget his professional studies, as to which Selden gave him valuable advice. He became about 1631 recorder of Abingdon and counsel for the corporation of Henley. In 1632 he earned by fees no less than 310l., which dropped, however, to 46l. in the following year, when he was no longer backed by his father's influence (Whitelocke, Memoirs of Whitelocke, pp. 74, 90).
Whitelocke had married in 1630, but his wife became insane shortly afterwards, and in 1634 he placed her under the care of a doctor, and travelled to alleviate his melancholy. At Paris he was received with great favour by Cardinal Richelieu, and offered the command of a troop of horse in the French service. Returning to England in June 1634, he resumed his practice, earned some local reputation by a speech as chairman of the Oxfordshire quarter sessions, in which he vindicated the jurisdiction of the civil against the ecclesiastical courts, and more by opposing the extension of Wychwood Forest in the interest of the gentlemen of the county (ib. pp. 102–9; Memorials, i. 67, 70). Having thus become popular, he was elected to the Long parliament as member for Marlow, and took from the first a prominent part in its
