Richard Whittington

Richard Whittington (c. 1354 – March 1423) of the parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, was an English merchant and politician of the late medieval period. He is also the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale Dick Whittington and His Cat. He was four times (appointed once, elected three times) Lord Mayor of London, a member of parliament and a Sheriff of London. In his lifetime he financed a number of public projects, such as drainage systems in poor areas of London, and a hospital ward for unmarried mothers. He bequeathed his fortune to form the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington which, over 600 years later, continues to assist people in need.

He was born, in around 1354, into an ancient and wealthy Gloucestershire gentry family, the 3rd son of Sir William Whittington (d.1358) of Pauntley, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, a member of parliament, by his wife Joan Maunsell, a daughter of William Maunsell (or Mansel), MP for Gloucestershire, Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1313. His elder brothers were Robert Whittington (d.1423/4), six times a Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire, and William Whittington, also MP for Gloucestershire, the eldest brother.

As a younger son, under the system of primogeniture he would not expect to inherit his father's estate, and thus was sent to the City of London to learn the trade of mercer through an apprenticeship. He was a contemporary of John Abbot who was the first mercer to leave property to the Mercers' Company to support a school.

Whittington became a successful merchant, dealing in valuable imports such as silks and velvets, both luxury fabrics, much of which he sold to royalty and nobility from about 1388. There is indirect evidence that he was also a major exporter to Europe of much-sought-after English woollen cloth such as broadcloth. From 1392 to 1394, he sold goods to King Richard II worth £3,500 (equivalent to £3,900,000 in 2023). He also began money-lending in 1388, preferring this to outward shows of wealth such as buying property. By 1397, he was lending large sums of money to the king.

In 1384, Whittington had become a Councilman of the City of London. In 1392, he was one of the City's delegation to the king at Nottingham Castle after the Fleet Street riot, at which the king seized the City of London's lands because of alleged misgovernment. By 1393, he had become an alderman and was appointed Sheriff of the City of London by the incumbent mayor, William Staundone, as well as becoming a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers. Two days after the death of Adam Bamme in June 1397, Whittington was imposed on the City by the king as his replacement as Lord Mayor of London. Within days, Whittington had negotiated with the king a deal in which the City bought back its liberties for £10,000 (equivalent to £9,400,000 in 2023). He was formally elected as mayor by a grateful populace on 13 October 1397.

The deposition of King Richard II in 1399 did not affect Whittington and it is thought that he merely acquiesced in the coup led by Bolingbroke, later King Henry IV, whom Whittington had long supplied with merchandise. He also lent the new king substantial amounts of money. He was elected mayor again in 1406 and 1419, and during 1407 served as mayor of The Staple at Calais, representing that town's merchants. In 1416 he became a member of parliament for the City of London. He was also influential with King Henry V, Henry IV's son and successor, to whom he lent large amounts of money and for whom he served on several Royal Commissions of oyer and terminer; for example, Henry V employed him to supervise the expenditure to complete Westminster Abbey. Despite being a moneylender himself, he was sufficiently trusted and respected to sit as a judge in usury trials in 1421. Whittington also collected revenues and import duties. A long dispute with the Worshipful Company of Brewers over standard prices and measures of ale was won by Whittington.

In 1402, at the age of 48, he married Alice FitzWaryn (d.1411), but she died without producing any children. She was one of the two daughters and joint heiresses of Sir Ivo FitzWaryn (1347–1414), of Caundle Haddon in Dorset, and of Wantage then in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) (whose monumental brass survives in Wantage Church). As a member of parliament variously for the county seats of Dorset, Devon, and Somerset; a son of Sir William FitzWaryn, Knight of the Garter, of Whittington Castle in Shropshire, who was probably a son of Fulk FitzWarin, 3rd Baron FitzWarin (c.1315–1349), also of Whittington Castle in Shropshire and of Wantage, who were of an ancient and powerful family of Marcher Lords. A portrait of Richard Whittington circa 1590 by Reginald Elstrack shows his paternal heraldic arms and also for his wife a differenced version of the usual arms of Baron FitzWarin with ermine in the 1st and 4th quarters in place of argent, which variant was also used by Wiliam FitzWarin, a member of the Shropshire family, as depicted in the Gelre Armorial, c.1370–1414.

The last in the male line was Fulk FitzWarin, 7th Baron FitzWarin (1406–1420), whose eventual successor (via a female line) was William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin, second son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu (1386–1420,) one of the wealthy noblemen to whom Richard Whittington lent money.