afterwards Lord Montford, one of the county members, Whitehead at the age of fourteen obtained a nomination to Winchester College, from whence he was summoned to Clare hall, Cambridge, in 1735. He became fellow of his college in 1742, and shortly after was engaged as tutor in the family of Lord Jersey. At this time he produced his tragedy of "The Roman Father," and also his "Creusa, Queen of Athens," which were received with great favour. In 1754 he went abroad with the son of the earl of Jersey and Viscount Nuneham. On his return to England two years afterwards he was appointed secretary and registrar to the order of the bath, and two years later was nominated to the office of poet-laureate, vacant by the death of Colley Gibber. He retained both these offices till his own death on the 14th of April, 1785. Besides a variety of tales, essays, odes, &c., Whitehead wrote a comedy entitled "The School for Lovers," and a farce called "A Trip to Scotland."—W. J. P.
WHITEHURST, John, an able philosophical writer, the son of a watchmaker at Congleton, Cheshire, was born there in 1713, and died in 1788. After quitting school, where he received but a scanty education, he learned his father's trade, and subsequently carried on business for himself at Derby, where he constructed also a number of ingenious instruments for mechanical and scientific purposes. In 1775 he was appointed stamper of money-weights, and removed to London. In 1778 he published his "Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth," of which there were three editions. In 1779 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed several papers to the Philosophical Transactions. In 1787 he published "An attempt toward obtaining invariable measures of length, capacity, and weight from mensuration of time." His other works were published by Dr. Willan in 1794.—F.
WHITELOCKE, Bulstrode, a distinguished lawyer and politician, who flourished during the period of the Great Civil war and of the Commonwealth, was the son of Sir James Whitelocke, judge of the common pleas, and was born in 1605. He was educated at the Merchant Tailors' school, London, and at St. John's college, Oxford, and afterwards entered himself a student at the Middle temple, where he became eminent for his knowledge of the common law. In November, 1640, he was elected a member of the Long parliament for Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire, and took a decided part against the arbitrary measures of the king and court. He was appointed chairman of the committee for managing the impeachment of the earl of Strafford, but he showed a reluctance to support the more violent measures of his party. On the trying question of the militia he was opposed both to the court and to the patriots, and maintained that the power of the militia was vested neither in the king nor in the parliament, but in both jointly. When the civil war broke out his house at Fairley court, Bucks, was plundered by Prince Rupert, and garrisoned by the royal troops. But he did not heartily support the cause of the parliament in the contest. He was one of the commissioners appointed to treat with the king at Oxford, and was a member of the famous Westminster assembly of divines, in which, like Selden, he resisted the pretensions of the presbyterian party. He opposed the self-denying ordinance, and was so anxious for peace that during the second negotiations at Oxford he made secret proposals to the king, the discovery of which exposed him to a good deal of odium and danger. As the designs of the republican party became more apparent Whitelocke drew closer to the royalists, and supported the cause of the king as the only means of preserving the constitution from total destruction. He boldly condemned in the house the trial of Charles, which he designated "a bad business," but after the execution of that monarch he seemed to have regarded Cromwell as the only man fit to carry on the government. He accepted the office of one of the commissioners of the great seal; but still vacillating in his views, he had the courage to recommend the protector to make terms with Charles II. He was sent ambassador from the Commonwealth to Sweden, sat in Cromwell's second parliament, was for a short time speaker of the third (1656), was one of the peers created by the protector, and in 1659 became president of the council of state and keeper of the great seal. He joined in urging Cromwell to accept the crown, yet from time to time boldly remonstrated with him against his unconstitutional and arbitrary behaviour. He took an active but not important part in the proceedings which followed the death of Oliver and the abdication of Richard, and ultimately supported the recall of the Stewarts. After the Restoration his name was with some difficulty inserted in the Act of Oblivion, and he spent the remainder of his life at his country seat, Chilton park, Wiltshire, where he died in 1676. During his retirement he wrote "Memoirs of the English Affairs from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to the happy Restoration of Charles II.;" "An Account of the Swedish Embassy in 1653-54;" and "Memorials of the English Affairs from the supposed expedition of Brute to the end of James I.'s reign," which were all published after his death.—J. T.
WHITELOCK, Sir James, a judge in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., was born in London in 1570. He received his education at Merchant Tailors' school and St. John's college, Oxford. In 1594 he was admitted into the Society of the Middle Temple. In the course of his practice he was distinguished by his regard for constitutional freedom, and in consequence of an opinion he gave to a client on the illegality of a benevolence exacted by James I., he was subjected to a star-chamber prosecution. When on the bench he dissented from all his colleagues by pronouncing against the power of the king and council, to commit to prison without specifying in the warrant the cause of the commitment. Charles I. himself bore witness to the merits and independence of this judge in speaking of him, as "a stout, wise, and learned man, and one who knew what belonged to uphold magistrates and magistracy in their dignity." In 1620 he was elected to represent Woodstock in parliament, and was shortly afterwards knighted and made chief-justice of Chester. In 1624 he was a puisne judge of the king's bench. He died in 1632. His treatise on lawful combats in England is printed in Hearne's collection of curious discourses.—R. H.
* WHITESIDE, James, Q.C, M.P., was born at Delgany in the county of Wicklow, Ireland, in August, 1804. He graduated in Trinity college, Dublin, having obtained many honours in classics. Preparatory to his call to the bar in 1830, he applied himself with great assiduity to legal studies for three years in London, entering the London university and gaining a high reputation in the law class, as well as for his oratorical powers. Here, too, he formed associations with distinguished literary men, and became a contributor to several of the lending periodicals of the day. Mr. Whiteside selected the north-east circuit and got rapidly into business, especially as a nisi prius advocate. His reputation in 1842 was so deservedly high that he then obtained a silk gown. From this period Mr. Whiteside is found in all the causes celebres of his time, not only on his circuit and in Dublin, but frequently upon other circuits where he was specially retained. Amongst these may be mentioned his defence nominally of the Nation newspaper, but really of O'Connell, in the great state prosecution of 1844, a masterly and magnificent declamation; his advocacy of W. Smith O'Brien and Francis Meagher at Clonmel in 1848, which was justly described as "a beautiful and sustained piece of logic, with one leading thought, developing one intent, pointing to one object." In great civil cases, too, his powerful advocacy was eagerly sought for. He was engaged in the Mountgarrett case, tried in 1854 and in 1855; in the great Colclough will case, in which he eminently distinguished himself; and in the celebrated Yelverton case, his greatest professional triumph. The parliamentary and political life of Mr. Whiteside dates from 1851. In that year he was returned for the borough of Enniskillen, for which he sat till 1859 when he resigned, and was elected to represent the university of Dublin, an honour which he still enjoys. In the senate Mr. Whiteside found an arena eminently suited to his abilities, and congenial to his nature. He quickly became prominent as a debater and orator, and ultimately rose to occupy a place in the highest rank. A steady and active supporter of the conservative party, a prominent position has ever been assigned to him in all the great debates; and it has been his task to reply to Mr. Gladstone, to Sir James Graham, to Earl Russell, and to Lord Palmerston, and to have on most of those occasions extorted commendation from his antagonists. Amongst the greatest of his parliamentary successes may be mentioned his speeches on the Crimean war in 1854; his reply to Mr. Gladstone in May, 1855; his impeachment of the ministry on the Kars debate in April, 1856; his speech on Mr. Cardwell's motion on East Indian affairs in May, 1858; that on the affairs of Italy in July, 1859; on education in 1861; on America in the same session, designated by Lord Palmerston as "a very learned and well-reasoned speech;" and finally, his powerful and brilliant speech on the Irish church question in May, 1863.
