Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitelocke, Edmund
WHITELOCKE, EDMUND (1565–1608), courtier, born in the parish of St. Gabriel, Fenchurch Street, London, on 10 Feb. 1564–5, was eldest son of Richard Whitelocke, merchant. The judge Sir James Whitelocke [q. v.] was a younger brother. After being educated at Merchant Taylors' school under Richard Mulcaster [q. v.], he was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he matriculated as a pensioner in November 1581. He acquired at the university a good knowledge of the classics and of Hebrew, and graduated B.A. in 1584-5. His brother attests that he studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and he may be identical with 'Edward Whitelock of Berks' who, according to the registers of the inn, was admitted a student on 25 Oct. 1585 (Lincoln's Inn Records, 1896, i. 102). At Whitsuntide 1587 Whitelocke left London on a foreign tour. He visited universities in Germany, Italy, and France. Subsequently he obtained a commission as captain of a troop of infantry from the governor of Provence (M. Desguieres), and was stationed successively at Marseilles and Grenoble. He saw some active service during the civil wars in France, and soon spoke French like a native. He finally returned to England in 1599, after an absence of twelve years. Thenceforth he spent his time and such substance as remained to him in attendance at Elizabeth's court, and won a reputation for profuse display and dissolute living. He was on terms of close intimacy with many of the younger nobility, including Roger Manners, earl of Rutland, and other followers of the Earl of Essex. Rutland invited him to visit Essex's house in London on 30 Jan. 1601, the day fixed for the Earl of Essex's insurrection. He remained in the house only a few minutes, but he incurred a suspicion of disloyalty (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598-1601, pp. 548, 596). He was arrested as an abettor of Essex's rebellion, and was indicted of high treason, but, though brought before the court of king's bench, was not tried, but allowed to go on parole before he obtained a final discharge. Subsequently he came to know Henry Percy, ninth earl of Northumberland [q. v.], whom he zealously supported in his quarrel with Sir Francis Vere in 1602. A challenge which Whitelocke carried from the earl to Sir Francis led to the issue of a warrant by the privy council for his arrest; but Whitelocke went into hiding, and escaped capture for the time (ib. Dom. 1601-3, pp. 202-5; Markham, Fighting Veres, pp. 334-6). He happened, however, to dine with the Earl of Northumberland and his kinsman Thomas Percy on 4 Nov. 1605, the day preceding that fixed by the conspirators for the execution of the 'gunpowder plot.' Suspicion again fell on Whitelocke, and, with his host, suffered a long imprisonment in the Tower of London. No evidence was produced against him, and he was released without trial. While a prisoner in the Tower he spent much time with the Earl of Northumberland, who granted him a pension of 40l. (afterwards raised to 60l.) Another of Whitelocke's friends was Robert Radcliffe, fifth earl of Sussex [see under Radcliffe, Thomas, third Earl of Sussex]. Manningham the diarist attributes to Whitelocke's evil influence that nobleman's scandalous neglect of his wife. Whitelocke was on a visit to the Earl of Sussex at Newhall in Essex in the autumn of 1608 when he was taken ill and died. He was buried in the family tomb of his host at Boreham.
[Whitelocke's Liber Famelicus (Camden Soc.), pp. iv, 5-10; Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. ii. 494; Manningham's Diary.]