FAMILY GROUP RECORD OF
JOHN AND ELIZABETH WHYTE
 

John Whyte was christened 24 February 1621/2 in Cropredy, the son of Edmond Whyte and Anne Brice. John married Elizabeth in about 1647.

The Whyte family had lived in a large timber house on Church Street in Cropredy since 1608, later covered in Hornton stone. They had lived there for three generations.

The Whyte's house is described in The Town of Cropredy, 1570-1640: "Whyte's house being 30' wide had room for a wider low chamber/parlour and hall. A transverse beam in the downstairs chamber and a tie beam in the upper chamber supported the floor and roof trusses. The upper chamber jettys out 30" into the hall over the later through passage. The roof space was divided into three bays. The first two formed the cockloft which had a stud partition to keep out the smoke from the hall fire, traces of which can be seen in the later floored third bay once open to the hall. The buttery was to the rear of the low chamber and both would have had doors onto the hall. Once the walls were stoned the role of the hall changed and the chamber became the dwelling house with a new gable chimney" (History of Cropredy, Keegan)

The Whytes’s house had been “a three generation household almost continuously since 1608. John Neal, who was to marry Hannah, was the sexton and now lived conveniently opposite a church gate. Hannah was paid for scrubbing the lectern and heating the irons when the leads on the church roof were done. They die poor.”  The lectern is a well-known feature of the Cropredy church: “In the church is a brass eagle of very curious workmanship. The lectern is an eagle standing on a globe, supported by three small lions. The beak of the eagle was used to collect Peters pence, sometimes called Pentecostals, Whitsuntide farthings or Smoake farthings. The farthings were removed from the eagle’s brass tail feathers.” During the Civil War, the lectern was hidden: “In 1643 the townsmen thought the treasures again in danger, this time from the Parliamentarians on the eve of the battle of Cropredy Bridge. They carried the eagle down to the River Cherwell and hid it there. Unfortunately, die to lost church accounts the date when the eagle was brought back is unknown. Entries of the eagle being scoured yearly begin in 1695. Dame Whyte or her daughter Hannah, with John Neal were paid 2d. for the work. As she scoured, the word generally used for a vigorous polishing, it would be clear that the eagle was made of brass, not bronze. After rescuing the eagle, which was discolored from the immersion and missing a lion, a replacement in bronze had been hastily made to match, only to find too late that the eagle was made of shining brass. The lectern must have been left for many years for the men to have forgotten how bright it used to be. Had they enquired of the women in the Whyte family no doubt the truth would have been found out sooner.” (History of Cropredy, Keegan)

John was buried 31 March 1693 in Cropredy, and was listed as a laborer at his death.

Elizabeth was buried 28 October 1702 in Cropredy.

John and Elizabeth had the following children:

 

1. Joane, christened 6 February 1648 in Cropredy.
 

2. James, christened 17 March 1650 in Cropredy.
 

3. John, christened 28 February 1652 in Cropredy; buried 31 December 1677 in Cropredy.
 

4. Thomas, christened 26 November 1653 of Cropredy; died in 1738.
 

5. William, born 21 August 1655 in Cropredy; christened 10 October 1655 in Cropredy.
 

6. Mary, born 17 October 1660 in Cropredy; christened 17 November 1660 in Cropredy.
 

*7. Hannah, christened 11 February 1662/3 in Cropredy; married John Neal 4 October 1696 in Cropredy.

  

Christening record for Hannah White in Cropredy: "Hannah White the daughter of John White and Elizabeth his wife was baptized upon the eleventh"

  

FAMILY GROUP RECORD OF
EDMOND WHYTE
AND ANNE BRICE

Edmond or Edward Whyte was christened 27 March 1585 in Cropredy, the son of John Whyte and Elizabeth Gosset. He married Anne Brice 12 October 1618 in Cropredy.

The family grew, and then grandchildren came to live in the Whyte's house: "By 1647 Edward's second son John had married Elizabeth, and their seven children began to fill their grandfather's house." (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan)   Edward Whyte married Anne Brice in 1618, and they lived with Elizabeth in the family home. “It was the eldest son William’s misfortune to lose his young wife Grace and have only daughters. After William’s departure and possible arrangements over giving up any of his rights as eldest son to Edward, he was at last able to marry Anne in 1618, when he was thirty-three. They would sleep in the upstairs chamber. By 1624, the family is down to five adults and two boys, but still headed by Widow Whyte. Edward and Anne’s third and last child, Anne was born in 1625. They were difficult years anyway for a trade supporting several adults. (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan) 

The Whyte's cottage had a vegetable garden and apple orchard: "In Widow Whyte's time their greatest asset was the cottage, the cow and the vegetable garden besides a little arable and leyland. There was an orchard of apple and wardens to the north of the cottage. They would have stored these in the cockloft carrying them up the two ladders. The garden was dug for essential vegetables and kept manured by their house cow." (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan) "Widow Whyte twice gives the vicar produce from her orchard whose trees still remained, or had been replaced, down the years until two hundred years later" when apples still grew at the cottage. (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan)

Anne died and was buried 26 December 1629.

Edmond then married Cicelie Carter Rawlins, a widow, on 18 October 1634 in Cropredy: "Edward’s wife, Anne, was buried the day after Christmas 1629. He was left with three children aged ten, seven, and four. Walter Rawlins next door died in 1628, leaving his second wife Cicelie with four children – three girls and a boy. The Whytes and Rawlins had lived next door to each other for nearly forty years. On the 18^th of October 1634 Cicelie married “Edmond” (Edward) Whyte." (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan)
 

The family continued to grow:“By 1647, Edward’s second son John had married Elizabeth, and their seven children began to fill their grandfather’s house. Edward died aged seventy-seven before Hannah was born.”  John and Elizabeth continued in the house: "In later years this was a cordwainer's cottage and although the Whytes have relations who were glovers and there is a family of Whytes who were shoemakers in Banbury the connections are slim. The house was large enough to be a craftsman's rather than a labourer's and yet many shoemakers through no fault of their own descended into old age like John (1622-93) who "received the weekly collection" and his wife Elizabeth who died a "poor" widow”. (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan)

Edmond was buried 13 October 1662.

Edmond and Anne had the following children:

 

1. Thomas, christened 1 November 1619 in Cropredy; married Hester; had children Thomas, Kezia, and Hester; died 1685; will proven 7 Oct 1685.
 

*2. John, christened 24 February 1621/2 in Cropredy; married Elizabeth; buried 31 March 1693 in Cropredy.

Baptism record for John Whyte in Cropredy: "John White the sonne of Edmonde White & Anne his wife was baptized the xxiiijth"

 

3. Anne, christened 10 July 1626 in Cropredy.

 
 

FAMILY GROUP RECORD OF
JOHN WHYTE AND
ELIZABETH GOSSET

John Whyte was born in about 1550. John (a leather worker) married Elizabeth Gosset 26 October 1578 in Cropredy. "There was a large influx over sixteen years so Cropredy must have had a lot to offer as most came in to set up a business. Not all these newcomers had new sites, some took over vacant ones. What they did have in common (except for Whytes and Normans) was an early stone house and the fact that they came into the town over a very short period of time (1574-1590), encouraged to settle and build by the landlord offering them small parcels of land." (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan)



Elizabeth is most likely the daughter of William and Margery Gossege of Cropredy.


The Whyte family first appeared in the Cropredy records in 1578: “The Whytes first enter the records in 1578 when John married Elizabeth Gosset. They remain for three generations.” The house in Cropredy “was a craftsman’s, rather than a laborer’s....John Whyte and Elizabeth who began the Cropredy branch of the Whyte family had five sons and four daughters over a period of eighteen years. The third baby, Fabean, died aged three months, and ten months later her fourth, Edward, was born. In 1584 when Fabean died, food was expensive, and they appear to be lacking sufficient land for all their barley or rye bread, although they did have the cow. Over eighteen years of child rearing with several toddlers constantly around to care for, Elizabeth still managed to raise eight of them.”


 
John was buried 30 November 1609 in Cropredy.



The family appeared in a list of Easter oblations in 1617:

wydow whyte
edward whyte........ijd
Justinian whyte .....ijd
her daughter ..........ijd


Elizabeth was not buried in Cropredy: "What caused Widow Elizabeth to give up her home after nearly fifty years? Was it when Edward's wife Anne died, or when he married again? Whatever the reason she must have gone to live with another of her children as she was not buried in Cropredy." (The Town of Cropredy, Keegan)


John and Elizabeth had the following children:

 

1. Wiliam, christened 9 September 1579 in Cropredy; married Grace.
 

2. Ellen, christened 13 May 1581 in Cropredy; married Walter Bayly 5 September 1614 in Cropredy.
 

3. Fabean christened 6 February 1584 in Cropredy; buried 2 May 1584 in Cropredy.
 

*4. Edmond, christened 27 March 1585 in Cropredy; married Anne Brice 12 October 1618 in Cropredy; married Cicelie Rawlins 18 October 1634 in Cropredy; buried 13 October 1662 in Cropredy.

Baptism record for Edmond Whyte in Cropredy: "Edmond Whyte the sonne of Jhon Whyte and Elizabeth his wife was christened the xxvij of March"

 

5. Alice, christened 18 February 1587/8 in Cropredy.
 

6. Thomas, christened 11 November 1590 in Cropredy.
 

7. Kate, christened 12 October 1593 in Cropredy.
 

8. Jane, christened 21 May 1596 in Cropredy.
 

9. Justinian, christened 16 August 1597 in Cropredy.