Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitmore, George
WHITMORE, Sir GEORGE (d. 1654), lord mayor of London, was the third son of William Whitmore (d. 8 Aug. 1593), a London merchant, by his wife Anne (d. 9 Oct. 1615), daughter of Sir William Bond, an alderman of London. He was master of the Haberdashers' Company, and on 23 May 1609 became a member of the Virginia Company under the second charter. He served the office of sheriff of London in 1621–2, and was alderman of the ward of Farringdon Within from 2 June 1621 to 7 Nov. 1626, when he exchanged to Langbourne ward, of which he was alderman until May 1643. On 7 July 1626 he and his elder brother, Sir William Whitmore, received a grant of the manor of Bridgwater Castle, with Heygrove in Somerset (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1625–6, pp. 369, 569). In 1631 he was chosen lord mayor of London, and on 27 May 1632 he was knighted. The pageants which celebrated his entry into office are detailed in a pamphlet preserved in the Huth Library, entitled ‘Londons Ius Honorarium’ (London, 1631, 4to), compiled by Thomas Heywood (d. 1650?) [q. v.] (cf. Corser, Collectanea, iv. 267). On 5 May 1637 he was appointed a commissioner to carry out the statute of Henry VIII for encouraging the use of the long bow and suppressing unlawful games (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1637, p. 66).
Whitmore was an ardent loyalist, and on 25 Nov. 1641 the king passed through his grounds at Balmes in Hackney on his return from Scotland. In 1642 he was imprisoned in Crosby House as a delinquent (ib. 1641–3, p. 403), and, although he was shortly released, he was reimprisoned on 20 Jan. 1642–1643 for refusing to pay the taxes levied by parliament. His estate was sequestered for some time, but he finally obtained his discharge from the committee of sequestrations, and on 22 Oct. 1651 was commanded to lay his discharge before the committee for compounding (Cal. Comm. for Compounding, p. 491).
He died at Balmes on 12 Dec. 1654, and was buried at St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, on 6 Jan. He married Mary (1616–1657), eldest daughter of Richard Daniel of Truro. By her he had three sons—Charles, George, and William—and four daughters: Elizabeth, married to Sir John Weld of Willey; Anne, married to Sir John Robinson, lord mayor of London; Margaret, married to Sir Charles Kemys; and Mary.
[Boase and Courtney's Biblioth. Cornub. 1874; Brown's Genesis of the United States, 1890, i. 228, ii. 1052; Whitmore's Notes on the Manor and Family of Whitmore, 1856, pp. 8, 9; Robinson's Hist. and Antiq. of Hackney, 1842, i. 154–162; Courtney's Guide to Penzance, 1845, App. p. 80; Gent. Mag. 1826, i. 131; Pepys's Diary and Corresp. ed. Braybrooke, ii. 293, 377, iv. 442; Funeral Sermon by Anthony Farindon, appended to his Thirty Sermons, 1657.]