and for three years all his printing was carried on at Chiswick. In 1852 he returned to the premises at Took's Court, which have remained the Chiswick Press down to the present day. Among the later fine works there printed may be mentioned the volumes of the Philobiblon Society, Lord Vernon's ‘Dante’ (1854), and the ‘Breviarium Aberdonense’ (1854). In 1854 Whittingham lost his wife and his friend Pickering, and in 1860 took his manager, John Wilkins (d. 1869), into partnership, and retired from active work. The business subsequently passed to Mr. George Bell, the well-known London publisher. The Chiswick Press has largely contributed to raise the standard of English printing in the nineteenth century, and its productions are as distinctive in character as those of Baskerville.
Whittingham died on 21 April 1876. He was learned in the history of the art of printing, of printing ink, and of the manufacture of papers. He was rather brusque and severe in manner; fly-fishing was his relaxation. His portrait, painted by Mrs. Furnival, is now at Stationers' Hall.
He married, in 1826, Eleanor Hulley (d. 1854) of Nottingham, who bore him five children—William, Charlotte, Elizabeth Eleanor, Jane, and Charles John—all of whom were for many years connected with the Chiswick Press, the daughters applying themselves to the literary and artistic departments. Elizabeth died in 1867. Charlotte married Mr. B. F. Stevens, who was a partner in the Chiswick Press from January 1872 to August 1876. Charlotte and Elizabeth were educated as artists, and from their designs came the greater part of the extensive collection of borders, monograms, head and tail pieces, and other embellishments still preserved and used. The engraver of most of the ornamental wood-blocks was Mary Byfield (d. 1871).
[Information from Mr. B. F. Stevens. See also Warren's The Charles Whittinghams, Printers (Grolier Club), New York, 1896; Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliography of Printing, vol. iii.; Athenæum, 19 Aug., 2, 9 Sept. 1876; British Bookmaker, September 1890.]
WHITTINGHAM, Sir SAMUEL FORD (1772–1841), whose Christian names were contracted by himself and his friends into ‘Samford,’ lieutenant-general, elder son and second child of William Whittingham of Bristol, was born at Bristol on 29 Jan. 1772. Samuel Ford was educated at Bristol and was intended for the law. Determined to be a soldier, but unwilling to oppose his father's wishes during his lifetime, he entered temporarily the mercantile house of his brother-in-law, travelling for it in Spain.
In 1797 he was enrolled at Bristol in the mounted volunteers, a force organised among the wealthier citizens on a threatened French invasion. On his father's death, on 12 Sept. 1801 (aged 60), at Earl's Mead, Bristol, Samford, who was in Spain, became independent, and took steps to enter the army. On his return to England he was gazetted ensign on 20 Jan. 1803. He bought a lieutenancy on 25 Feb., and was brought into the 1st life guards on 10 March the same year. He went to the military college at High Wycombe, and joined his regiment in London towards the end of 1804. Introduced by Thomas Murdoch, an influential merchant, to William Pitt, then prime minister, as an officer whose knowledge of the Spanish language would be useful, Whittingham was sent by Pitt at the end of 1804 on a secret mission to the Peninsula, and during absence promoted, on 14 Feb. 1805, to be captain in the 20th foot. On his return he was complimented by Pitt, and on 13 June 1805 he was transferred to the command of a troop in the 13th light dragoons.
On 12 Nov. 1806 Whittingham sailed from Portsmouth as deputy-assistant quartermaster-general of the force, under Brigadier-general Robert Craufurd [q. v.], intended for Lima; but on arrival at the Cape of Good Hope on 15 March 1807 its destination was changed, and on 13 June it reached Montevideo, recently captured by Sir Samuel Auchmuty [q. v.] General John Whitelocke [q. v.] had arrived to take command of the combined forces, and as Whittingham's staff appointment ceased on the amalgamation of the forces, Whitelocke made him an extra aide-de-camp to himself. He took part in the disastrous attack on Buenos Ayres and in the capitulation on 6 July, and sailed for England on 30 July. He gave evidence before the general court-martial, by which Whitelocke was tried in London in February and March 1808. Owing to his having served on Whitelocke's personal staff, Whittingham's position was a delicate one; but he acquitted himself with discretion.
Whittingham was immediately afterwards appointed deputy-assistant quartermaster-general on the staff of the army in Sicily. On arrival at Gibraltar, however, he acted temporarily as assistant military secretary to Lieutenant-general Sir Hew Dalrymple [q. v.], the governor, and, hearing of a projected campaign of the Spaniards under Don Xavier Castaños against the French, obtained leave to join Castaños as a volunteer, with instructions to report in detail to
