Britain generally in early times. This portion of the subject Whitaker further illustrated in a work published in 1772, entitled "Genuine History of the Britons," 8vo. It was written as a refutation of Macpherson's assertions in the Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1773 Whitaker was appointed morning preacher at Berkeley chapel, London, by a Mr. Hughes, who, after two months' experience of his nominee, removed him from the office. The preacher published a "Case between Mr. W. and Mr. Hughes," in which the impetuosity of his temper got the better of his discretion, and gave Mr. Hughes an opportunity of bringing an action for libel. A determined maintenance of what he thought right, was one of Whitaker's strongest characteristics. He refused a valuable benefice because the patron was a unitarian. On succeeding in 1778 to the college living of Ruan-Lanyhorne in Cornwall, he quarreled with his parishioners on a question of tithe commutation, and steadily proceeded through a course of vexatious litigation till he gained the victory. He had the satisfaction before his death of winning the regard of his flock, who found him not only an excellent preacher, but a kind-hearted man. A volume of his sermons was published in 1783. His work on the "Origin of Arianism" is a most learnedly argued piece of polemics. In 1787 he published his "Vindication of Mary Queen of Scots," in which he very heartily contradicts the opinions then prevalent among Englishmen. Scarcely less remarkable were his attacks upon Gibbon in the English Review. It is said the author of the Decline and Fall had shown him the first volume of his work in MS., without the anti-christian chapter. Whitaker would naturally feel angry at having expressed admiration for a sceptical book. He died at his rectory, October 30, 1808.—(See Lowndes' Manual for list of works.)—R. H.
WHITAKER, Thomas Dunham, LL.D., an eminent English writer of local histories, was born on the 8th of June, 1759, at Rainham, Norfolk, where his father was curate. The family, however, had been established for centuries at Holme in Lancashire, where the father of Thomas Dunham succeeded to the paternal estate in 1760. Whitaker was educated first at Rochdale, then at Grassington in Craven under the direction of the Rev. W. Sheepshanks, and in 1775 entered St. John's college, Cambridge. He took the degree of LL.B. in 1780, intending to follow the civil law as a profession, but the death of his father in 1782 changed his plans. He went to reside at Holme, entered holy orders, and in 1797 became perpetual curate of Holme, a chapel founded by his ancestors, and rebuilt and re-endowed chiefly at his own cost. He subsequently became rector of Heysham, vicar of Whalley in 1809, and vicar of Blackburn in 1818. The last preferment he survived but three years, dying on the 18th December, 1821, from paralysis, brought on by the alarm he felt at the popular risings which then disturbed Lancashire and Yorkshire. His large and handsomely illustrated histories of Whalley, Craven, Leeds, and Richmondshire, contain much valuable information, gathered at great cost. The first volume of his Leeds is a new edition of the history of that town by Thoresby, whose descendant, Lucy Thoresby, became Dr. Whitaker's wife. It is worthy of note that J. Mallard Turner was employed by Dr. Whitaker to make drawings for the illustration of his Yorkshire histories. In divinity the doctor was also very learned, and he is said, to have dismayed Dr. Watson, bishop of Llandaff, by the array of authorities he brought to bear against him in an after-dinner argument.—R. H.
WHITBREAD, Samuel, a well-known politician, was the son of a wealthy brewer by a daughter of the first Earl Cornwallis, and was born in London in 1758. He was educated at Eton and at St. John's college, Cambridge, and on leaving the university made the tour of Europe, under the care of Mr. (afterwards Archdeacon) Coxe. In 1789 Whitbread married the eldest daughter of the first Earl Grey, and in the following year entered parliament as member for the borough of Steyning. His early training and his family connections led him to attach himself to the whig party, and his princely fortune, shrewdness, sincerity, and energy, gave him great influence in the house of commons and in the country. Whitbread was a zealous and unfaltering adherent of Mr. Fox, and on the death of that great statesman he became one of the most prominent members of his party. He had a tendency to mix up personal matters with his advocacy of his political principles; and though he was in reality a very kind-hearted man, his earnestness and vehemence gave an appearance of bitterness to his attacks on the leading members of the government. He was appointed chief manager of the impeachment of Lord Melville in 1803, and conducted the case with great ability. Like the rest of the whigs, he long opposed the carrying on hostilities with France and the war policy of the ministry, but he had the candour to acknowledge the wisdom of Wellington's strategy, and to urge (1814) the government to put forth the whole strength of the country in order to bring the contest to a triumphant conclusion. He just lived to see the close of the war which had so long desolated Europe. He had for some time been subject to attacks of morbid depression, which after his death were found to have proceeded from a local pressure on the brain. His mind became affected, and he fancied himself the victim of conspiracies on the part of his enemies, and the object of public hatred or ridicule. Under the influence of these feelings he put a period to his own life, 6th July, 1815. Whitbread was a man of sincere though not ascetic piety, amiable and benevolent in his disposition, and irreproachable in private life.—J. T.
WHITBY, Daniel, a learned English divine and commentator, was born at Rushden, Northamptonshire, in 1638, and was educated at Trinity college, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1664. In 1672 he took the degree of D.D., and became rector of St. Edmund's, Salisbury, and in 1696 was appointed prebendary of Taunton Regis. In 1683 he published the "Protestant Reconciler," a work intended to reconcile dissenters to the church by proposing the abolition of certain ceremonies; but his book produced no good effect, and was so obnoxious to his own party, that it was formally burnt at Oxford. Whitby besides was compelled to make "retractation" of its proposals by his bishop, Dr. Ward of Salisbury. Dr. W. Sherlock wrote a work to refute the "Protestant Reconciler." Whitby was the author of numerous writings against the Romish church, the best being his "Treatise on Traditions." He published his "Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament" in 1703—a work which has been frequently reprinted. His "Five Points of Calvinism," is a defence of Arminianism. His "Disquisitiones Modestæ," published in 1718, are antitrinitarian. His "Last Thoughts" were published in 1727, the year after his death.—F.
WHITE, George, a celebrated engraver in mezzotint, was born in London about 1671. He was the son and scholar of Robert White, but he practised almost exclusively in mezzotint, in which manner he excelled every other engraver in Europe. He greatly improved mezzotint engraving by first etching the outline before laying the ground, and by using the graver for sharpening points of light and shadow, thus imparting additional brilliancy and precision. He excelled in portraits: among the best are those of Dobson the painter, by himself, Sylvester Petit, Sir Richard Blackmore, Lord Clarendon, Dryden, Colonel Blood, &c. He occasionally painted portraits in oil and miniature. He was alive in 1731, and probably died soon after.—J. T—e.
WHITE, Gilbert, the naturalist, was born in 1720 at Selborne in Hampshire, a pleasant and sequestered village on the eastern skirts of Woolmer forest, to which his father, a barrister of the Inner temple, had retired in 1731. White received his earlier education at Basingstoke from the Rev. Thomas Warton, the father of the two well-known writers of that name. In 1739 he was admitted a student of Oriel college, Oxford, was elected a fellow of his college in 1744, and in 1752 a proctor of the university, discharging the duties of the last office with a success which surprised his family, who had thought them unsuitable to a man of his quiet disposition. He had frequent opportunities of accepting college livings, but did not avail himself of them; "not that he was averse to the duties of the clerical profession," says the memoir of him in Mr. Charles Knight's Cyclopædia of Biography, "for during the later part of his life he acted in the capacity of curate at Selborne, and had previously performed the same duties in the adjoining parish of Faringdon"—statements which we do not find confirmed by other authorities. However this may be, he retired "early" (the precise date is nowhere given) to Selborne, and spent the rest of his life in exploring the fauna and flora of his neighbourhood, in watching attentively the ways and habits of its animated nature, in diarizing the weather and other natural phenomena, in corresponding on and studying natural history. He seems to have published little or nothing but a monograph on the British Hirundines, contributed to the Philosophical Transactions, when in 1789 appeared his "Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in a series of letters to the Hon. Daines Barrington and Thomas Pennant, Esq.," published, it may be mentioned, by his brother,
