MRP: Sir Ralph Whitfield will
Sir Ralph Whitfield
PROB 11/194 Rivers 111-157 Will of Sir Ralph (Raph) Whitfield 27 December 1645
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN I S:r RAPH WHITFELD KNIGHT on of his Maiesties Serieantes att Lawe knowinge that all the sonnes of men have but their tymes on Earth and must some sooner & some later, leave their transitorie life att the tyme appoynted by their Creato:r: beinge sicke and weake of body, but of perfect memorie and understandinge, and desireous soe to settlle my estate which God of his mercie, bounty, and great goodnes, hath bestowed on me and make provision for my wife and Children therewith, and although by reason of the present great troubles and distraccons in this Kingdome my estate is soe much shortned as I cannot doe for my wife and Children as otherwise I might have done (as they partly knowe) yet I have scanted my selfe in the disposicon thereof soe as I doe leave all to them beseechinge God to blesse them with itt, and that they may bee comfortable and helpfull one to the other which they have need to doe, and the more for that itt hath pleased God to take to his mercie my very good and worthy Brother in Lawe S:r John Spelman Knight, whoe I assure my selfe would have beene a great stey unto them if hee had overlived mee;
Commentary
Burke states that the Whitfield family of Tenterden was descended from John Whitfield of Tenterden, who was living in 1548, and who was the second son of Robert Whitfield of Wadhurst (CHECK) in Essex.[1]
Sir Ralph Whitfield was a son of Herbert Whitfield (als. Whitfeld) of Tenterden in Kent. He erected a memorial to his father, Herbert (b.?,d.1623), and his mother, Martha (b.?,d.1614), at St. Mildred's church, Tenterden, which is now known as the Whitfield memorial.
By the 1640s Sir Ralph had purchased a house in Bletchingly, which John Evelyn reported visiting in 1643:
"6th November. [1643] Lying by the way from Wotton at Sir Ralph Whitfield's, at Bletchingley (whither both my brothers had conducted me), I arrived at London on the 7th, and two days after took boat at the Tower-wharf, which carried me as far as Sittingbourne, though not without danger, I being only in a pair of oars, exposed to a hideous storm; but it pleased God that we got in before the peril was considerable. From thence, I went by post to Dover, accompanied by one Mr. Thicknesse, a very dear friend of mine."[2]
Possible sources
Primary
PROB 11/68 Brudenell Will of John Whitfeilde or Whitfeld, Yeoman of Tenterden, Kent 15 June 1585
PROB 11/141 Swann 1-66 Will of Herbert Whitfeld or Whitfeild of Tenterden, Kent 15 February 1623PROB 11/194 Rivers 111-157 Will of Sir Ralph (Raph) Whitfield 27 December 1645
Secondary
Dobson, Austin (ed.), The diary of John Evelyn, vol. 1 (London, 1906)
Whitfield, Theodore Marshall, Whitfield, Bryan, Smith, and related families, vol. 1 (XXXX, 1948)
Bernard Burke, Bernard The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and wales: comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time (London, 1864)
