{105} Some Edward III Descents for Maj. Edward Whyte (1839-1904)

Whyte of Loughbrickland coat of arms
[Argent, a chevron engrailed between three roses gules,
seeded or, barbed vert]

In this final post on the ancestry of guest blogger Desmond Clarke, the focus is on his ancestor Maj. Edward Whyte of Dublin, a younger son of the Irish Catholic gentry family seated at Loughbrickland House, in county Down. The family can trace its ancestry back to the 12th-century Sir Walter Whyte, who accompanied Strongbow on his expedition to Ireland in 1170, and took a leading part in the conquest of Ulster. By the 17th-century, the Whytes held Leixlip Castle in co. Kildare, and the first of the family with a verifiable marriage into the Edward I bloodline was Col. Charles Whyte of Leixlip Castle (d. 1697), with both of his wives descendants of that monarch. Col. Whyte supported James II, and suffered in the defeat at the Battle of the Boyne. His lands were confiscated, though he remained an important county figure, and was returned to Parliament for Naas in 1689. It was his son and heir, Col. John Whyte (c.1675-1741) who, suffering under the Penal Laws of 1703 which prohibited Catholics from owning land unless they became Protestant, sold Leixlip Castle in 1728, and relocated to Loughbrickland House, a property that had been inherited by his wife. For a detailed and lively account of the Whytes at Loughbrickland, see the 2012 online article 'A brief history of the Whyte family in Loughbrickland' by Jean Whyte, wife of the current owner of the estate.

Capt. Nicholas Charles Whyte
(1783-1844)

By the time Nicholas Charles Whyte inherited Loughbrickland House in 1814 at age 31, the estate comprised 1,928 acres, and the Catholic Relief Acts of 1793 had allowed for registered Catholics to hold land and office. As the fifth of eight sons, Nicholas never expected to succeed his father, and joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman on HMS Lively, taking part at age 14 in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in January 1797. He continued in the Navy during the Napoleonic wars and was Second Lieutenant on the 74-gun frigate HMS Victorious during the Battle of Pirano in the Adriatic sea in February 1812, as well as the blockade of the Elizabeth River in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. When Nicholas's father John Whyte made his will in 1813, he cut off his nine-year-old grandson Charles John Whyte, the posthumous only child of his eldest son and heir who had died in late 1803, because the boy was being educated as a Protestant. The next eldest son, John Whyte of the East India Company, died a bachelor mere months after his father, leaving the war veteran naval officer Nicholas Charles Whyte to inherit the family seat. Greatly respected within the county, Capt. Whyte became the first Catholic to be appointed a High Sheriff in Ireland, serving that role for County Down in 1830-31. He also served the county as a justice of the peace and a deputy lieutenant.

Uniform of the Royal
Canadian Rifle Regiment,
mid-1800s

Edward Whyte, the youngest of Capt. Nicholas Whyte's three sons, was barely five years old when his father died in 1844. There was a strong military tradition within the Whyte family, and in March 1858 at age 18, Edward was gazetted as an ensign in the Royal Canadian Rifles Regiment. He served twelve years, and though he never saw combat, he quickly became enamoured of the province of Ontario. "Society in London [Ontario], and, indeed, throughout Canada, is extremely pleasant," he wrote years later, "an absence of the stiffness and coldness of our own little island--still not American exactly, nor yet wholly French--combine the good qualities of all, and the result is Canadian society" [Maj. Edward Whyte, 'A Sleigh Drive to Niagara,' The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine, Volume 6 (1887), p. 376]. Though neither of the two young ladies who make up, with himself and three other officers, the party that sleighs from London to Niagara in the middle of winter in 1862-63 in order to see the mighty falls in its icy state, are mentioned by name by Maj. Whyte in a story he wrote years later about the excursion, it's clear that one of them had to be the teenaged Jessie Rutherford. She was the daughter of the physician, who had immigrated with his family from Scotland, in the small town of Dundas, on the Western edge of Lake Ontario. In May 1863, Edward Whyte purchased his commission as a Captain for £700 over-regulation. This was a common practice for officers: Whyte had purchased his lieutenancy in 1859, and would spend over £2,400 in 1868 to become a Major. Six months after purchasing his company, 24-year-old Capt. Edward Whyte married 18-year-old Jessie Rutherford. Their life together over the next seven years is hard to re-trace, but when the Royal Canadian Rifles disbanded in 1870, months before Maj. Whyte could purchase his lieutenant-colonelcy, he had returned to Ireland with his wife, and they were living on his half-pay in the Dublin suburb of Dalkey, when their children were born in 1871 and 1874. Jessie Whyte died in 1877 aged only 32. Needing a mother for his two young children, Maj. Whyte married again the following year to 21-year-old Catherine Codd, the daughter of a Dublin magistrate and merchant who had died when she was only age ten. Maj. Whyte, eighteen years older than his second wife, went on to have three daughters with her. By the 1880s, he had tired of trying to continue a career as an officer, retired from the Army, and turned to writing, first with articles for The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine, and then became the military correspondent for the Irish Times newspaper. "It is reputed that his dispatches were often written after dining with generals in Dublin as there is no record of his ever being involved in any war" [Desmond Clarke, Footnotes: A Personal History, private manuscript, p. 7].

Evacuation of Singapore February 1942

Maj. Whyte died in 1904 at age 65 before he had the chance to walk any of his four daughters to the altar. They turned out to be rather remarkable ladies: second daughter Gladys Whyte, a vivacious beauty, married in 1907 an educated (Protestant) civil servant, joining him in India, while Muriel Whyte, the youngest daughter, was one of the first women to obtain a degree at University College Dublin, where she was required to be accompanied to lectures by a chaperone. She married an Army officer in India in 1912, and after his death from wounds received in action in Mesopotamia (today, Iraq) in World War I left her a widow with two young sons, she married his younger brother, the manager of a plantation in Malaysia. There, Muriel bore three more sons and became a keen tennis player before being evacuated on the Empress of Japan in 1942 after the outbreak of World War II. Sadly her second husband died in a Japanese prisoner of war internment camp in Malaysia in January 1945. Muriel retired with her sons to Weybridge, Surrey, where her two sisters resided, and lived to the age of 87, the last surviving child of Maj. Whyte of the Royal Canadian Rifles.

Maj. EDWARD WHYTE of East Monkstown, co. Dublin, Major Royal Canadian Rifles Regiment 1868-70, military correspondent for Irish Times, yst son of Capt. Nicholas Charles Whyte of Loughbrickland House (1783-1844, descended from Henry IV - see Generation A15 below) and Mary Louisa Segrave (c.1801-1876, descended from Edward III - see Generation D16 below), b. 1839; d. 10 Dec. 1904 East Monkstown; m. 1st 12 Nov. 1863 Dundas, Wentworth County, Ontario, Canada, JESSICA MARY RUTHERFORD, b. c.1845 France; d. 1877 Rathdown, co. Dublin, yst dau. of Dr. Henry Charles Rutherford of Dundas, physician (1808-1876) and his 2nd wife Jessie Henderson (c.1820-1882), and had issue, one son and one daughter; m. 2nd 1878 Rathdown, CATHERINE MARY CODD, b. 1857 (aged 52 at death) Strickland House, Dublin; d. 21 Sept. 1909 Kingstown [today Dún Laoghaire], co. Dublin, dau. of Francis Codd of Dublin, magistrate and merchant (1808-1867) and Margaret Anne Ryan (d. 1882), and had further issue, three daughters.

Kingstown [today Dún Laoghaire], co. Dublin

Issue of Maj. Edward and Jessica Mary (Rutherford) Whyte:

1) CLARA JESSICA MARY WHYTE, b. 15 Oct. 1871 Dalkey, co. Dublin, bap. 23 Oct. 1871 Church of the Assumption, Dalkey; d.s.p. 23 Nov. 1953; m. 17 Mar. 1919, ANTONIUS SCHULZE BERNDT of Roxew, Hanover, Germany, d. 6 Dec. 1974.

2) WILLIAM (HENRY) RUTHERFORD WHYTE of Clontarf, co. Dublin, b. 15 July 1874 Dalkey, bap. 20 July 1874 Church of the Assumption, Dalkey; d.s.p. 4 July 1901 Clontarf; m. 4 Oct. 1897 St Michael Church, Kingstown [today Dún Laoghaire], as her 2nd husband[*1], MINNIE AGATHA (DOYLE) CULLEN, b. c.1870 England (per 1901 Census of Ireland); d. 18 May 1907 Donnybrook, co. Dublin, widow of (----) Cullen, and dau. of Francis Doyle and Mary Flood.

Issue of Maj. Edward and Catherine Mary (Codd) Whyte:

Gladys (née White) Clarke (1880-1966), with her two elder
children Denzil and Beryl, in 1910 [Image courtesy of Desmond Clarke]

3) (MARGARET MARY) GLADYS WHYTE, b. 18 Oct. 1880 Dublin; bap. 25 Oct. 1880 St Andrew Church, Westland Row, Dublin; d. 4 Dec. 1966 Surrey, bur. Weybridge Cemetery; m. 25 Sept. 1907 Anglesey, Wales, ROBERT THOMAS CLARKE of St Kilda's, Weybridge, Surrey, Indian Civil Service 1894-1923, b. 12 Aug. 1871 Manorcunningham, co. Donegal, Ireland; d. 23 Mar. 1953 St Peter Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey, bur. Weybridge Cemetery, son of Thomas Alexander Clarke of Manorcunningham, farmer (c.1835-1915) and Elizabeth Clarke, and had issue, two sons and one daughter.

4) (MARY JOSEPHINE) NORAH WHYTE, b. 28 Mar. 1882 Dublin, bap. 2 Apr. 1882 St Andrew Church, Westland Row, Dublin; d.s.p. 2 Aug. 1954 Weybridge, bur. Weybridge Cemetery; m. 11 Mar. 1917 Chelsea, London, CHARLES MACLEOD CAREY of Weybridge, company director, bap. 21 Dec. 1880 St Mary Church, Wimbledon, Surrey; d.s.p. 18 Aug. 1962 Weybridge, bur. Weybridge Cemetery, est son of Joseph Carey of Drynoch House, Teddington, Middlesex, accountant (c.1844-1921) and Charlotte Gifford (1851-1935).

5) (MILDRED MARY) MURIEL WHYTE, b. 4 Nov. 1884 Dublin, bap. 12 Nov. 1884 St Andrew Church, Westland Row, Dublin; d. 30 May 1972 Weybridge, bur. Weybridge Cemetery; m. 1st 15 Sept. 1912 St Patrick Catholic Church, Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, India, Capt. SYDNEY HERBERT KILLICK, 1st Battalion Princes of Wales Volunteers (Southern Lancashire) Regiment, b. 22 Dec. 1889 Lahore, Bengal [India], bap. there 1 Feb. 1890; d. (of wounds received in action) 18 Nov. 1916 Iraq, er son of Charles Stanley Killick of Punjab, Indian Railway (1861-1892) and Ivy Elizabeth MacDonald (1865-1955), and had issue, two sons; m. 2nd 4 June 1920, her brother-in-law, NEIL SEWARD KILLICK of Selangor, Malaysia, manager Jugra Estate plantation, b. 12 Jan. 1891 Nice, France; d. (a prisoner of war) 11 Jan. 1945 Palembang Internment Camp, Sumatra, Malaysia, yr son of Charles Stanley Killick of Punjab (1861-1892) and Ivy Elizabeth MacDonald (1865-1955), and had further issue, three sons.

[*1] Minnie Agatha (Doyle) (Cullen) Whyte m. 3rd 1905 co. Dublin, Henry Harte of Donnybrook (who survived her). Her first husband is difficult to identify.

Constance (née Plantagenet), Countess
of Gloucester - see Generation A2

Maj. Edward Whyte has several lines of descent from Edward III in addition to the one thru Henry IV and the one thru Isabel (née Plantagenet), countess of essex, outlined in the previous blogpost. Following are six of them: three through the king's two youngest surviving sons, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York and Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, one through the king's grandson Cardinal Beaufort, and two through the Cardinal's nephew Richard Neville, 1st Earl of Salisbury.

Edward III had three sons A1, B1 and D1 (see below)
A1) Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341-1402) m. 1) Infanta Isabel of Castile (1355-1392), and had
A2) Lady Constance Plantagenet of York (c.1375-1416) = Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (1382-1408, descended from Edward I), and had
A3) Eleanor Holland, illegit. (b. c.1406) m. James Tuchet, 5th Lord Audley (c.1398-1459), and had
A4) Sir Humphrey Audley of Middleton (c.1435-1471) m. Elizabeth Courtenay (c.1435-1493, descended from Edward I), and had

Elizabeth (née Poyntz), Viscountess
Thurles - see Generation A9

A5) Elizabeth Audley (d. by 1530) m. John Sydenham of Brimpton (c.1468-1542), and had
A6) Sir John Sydenham of Brimpton (by 1493-1557) m. Ursula Brydges (d. 1576), and had
A7) Anne Sydenham m. Alexander Sydenham of Luxborough (d. 1584), and had

A8) Elizabeth Sydenham (1562-1595) m. Sir John Poyntz of Iron Acton (c.1560-1633, descended from Edward I), and had
A9) Elizabeth Poyntz (c.1590-1673) m. 1) Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles (c.1590-1619, descended from Edward I), and had
A10) Hon. Elizabeth Butler (c.1615-1675) m. 1) James Purcell, 12th Baron of Loughmoe (1609-1652, descended from Edward I), and had
A11) Nicholas Purcell, 13th Baron of Loughmoe (1651-1722) m. 1) Hon. Rose Trevor (c.1650-1684, descended from Henry IV), and had

Charles Whyte - see
Generation A13

A12) MARY PURCELL, b. c.1684; d. unknown; m. 1704, Col. JOHN WHYTE of Leixlip Castle, co. Kildare, b. c.1690; d. 1741, son of Col. Charles Whyte of Leixlip Castle and his 2nd wife Mary Newcomen (descended from Edward I), and had
A13) CHARLES WHYTE of Leixlip Castle, b. 1714; d. 29 Nov. 1784; m. 24 Dec. 1751, ANASTASIA DUNNE, b. c.1732; d. unknown, dau. of Edward Dunne of Brittas (c.1695-1765) and Margaret Wyse, and had
A14) JOHN WHYTE of Loughbrickland House, co. Down, b. 1752; d. 4 Jan. 1814 London, England, bur. 10 Jan. 1814 St Giles in the Fields, London; m. 15 Feb. 1776, LETITIA DE BURGH (see B15 below), and had
A15) Capt. NICHOLAS CHARLES WHYTE of Loughbrickland House, Captain Royal Navy, High Sheriff of co. Down 1830-31, b. 18 Jan. 1783; d. 28 Feb. 1844 Plymouth, Devon; m. (settlement 10 June) 1824 Dublin, MARY LOUISA SEGRAVE (see D16 below), and had
A16) Maj. EDWARD WHYTE of East Monkstown (1839-1904-see details above)

1st Duke of Buckingham -
see Generation B3

B1) Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (1355-1397) m. Lady Eleanor de Bohun (1366-1399, descended from Edward I), and had
B2) Anne Plantagenet, Countess of Buckingham (1383-1438) m. 2) Edmund, 5th Earl of Stafford (1378-1403, descended from Edward I), and had
B3) Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1402-1460) m. Lady Anne Neville (c.1408-1480, descended from Edward III)
B4) Humphrey, Earl of Stafford (c.1425-1458) m. Lady Margaret Beaufort (c.1437-1474, descended from Edward III), and had
B5) Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1455-1483) m. Lady Katherine Woodville (c.1458-1497), and had a son B6 and a dau C6 (see below)
B6) Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (1478-1521) m. Lady Eleanor Percy (c.1476-1531, descended from Edward III), and had

Elizabeth (née Stafford), Duchess
of Norfolk - see Generation B7

B7) Lady Elizabeth Stafford (1497-1558) m. Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473-1554, descended from Edward I), and had
B8) Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516-1547) m. Lady Frances Vere (1517-1577, descended from Edward I), and had
B9) Lady Katherine Howard (1539-1596) m. Henry, 7th Lord Berkeley (1534-1613, descended from Edward I), and had
B10) Frances Berkeley (1564-1595) m. Sir George Shirley, 1st Baronet of Staunton Harold (1559-1622), and had
B11) Sir Henry Shirley, 2nd Baronet of Staunton Harold (1589-1633) m. Lady Dorothy Devereux (see C10 below), and had
B12) Lettice Shirley (c.1618-1655) m. William Burgh, 7th Earl of Clanricarde (1610-1687, descended from Edward I), and had
B13) John Burgh, 9th Earl of Clanricarde (1642-1722) m. Mary Talbot (c.1661-1711, descended from Edward I), and had
B14) Hon. Thomas Burgh of Lackan House (c.1695-1763); m. Mary Eustace (c.1725-1762), and had
B15) LETITIA DE BURGH, b. c.1753; d. by 1813; m. 15 Feb. 1776, JOHN WHYTE of Loughbrickland House (see A14 above)

2nd Earl of Essex -
see Generation C9

C6) Lady Anne Stafford (c.1483-1544) m. 2) George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon (1487-1544, descended from Edward III), and had
C7) Lady Dorothy Hastings (c.1520-1566) m. Sir Richard Devereux of Lamphey (by 1513-1547, descended from Edward III), and had
C8) Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex (1539-1576) m. Lettice Knollys (1543-1634, descended from Edward III), and had
C9) Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565-1601) m. Frances Walsingham (1567-1632, descended from Edward I), and had
C10) Lady Dorothy Devereux (1600-1636) m. 1) Sir Henry Shirley, 2nd Baronet of Staunton Harold (see B11 above)

D1) John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) m. 3) Katherine Roet (c.1350-1403), and had a son D2 and a dau E2 (see below)
D2) Henry Beaufort, Cardinal Bishop of Winchester (1375-1447) = unknown mistress, and had

Thomas Stradling - see
Generation D5

D3) Jane Beaufort, illegit. (c.1402-1479) m. Sir Edward Stradling of St Donats Castle (c.1389-1453), and had
D4) Sir Henry Stradling of St Donats Castle (c.1423-1476) m. Elizabeth ap Thomas, and had
D5) Thomas Stradling of St Donats Castle (c.1454-1480) m. Jennet Matthew (d. 1485), and had
D6) Siân Stradling (b. c.1480) m. Sir William Griffith of Penryhn (c.1480-1531, descended from Edward I), and had
D7) Sir Edward Griffith of Penryhn (1511-1540) m. Jane Puleston, and had
D8) Ellen Griffith (c.1535-1573) m. Sir Nicholas Bagnall of Newry Castle (c.1510-1591), and had
D9) Mary Bagnall (c.1567-1609) m. Sir Patrick Barnewall of Turvey House (c.1562-1622), and had
D10) Nicholas, 1st Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland (1592-1663) m. Lady Bridget Fitzgerald (see E9 below), and had

Mary (née Segrave) Whyte -
see Generation D16

D11) Henry, 2nd Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland (c.1625-1688) m. 1) Hon. Mary Netterville (c.1635-1663, descended from Edward I), and had
D12) Hon. Marianna Barnewall (1662-1735) m. Thomas, 1st Baron Nugent of Riverston (see F12 below), and had
D13) William, 3rd Baron Nugent of Riverston (c.1690-1756) m. Bridget Daly (c.1700-1768), and had
D14) Anne Nugent m. John Segrave of Cabra House (d. 1783, descended from Edward I), and had
D15) Thomas Segrave of Dublin (c.1775-1817) m. Anne Grehan, and had
D16) MARY LOUISA SEGRAVE, b. c.1801; d. 29 June 1876 Dublin; m. (settlement 10 June) 1824 Dublin, Capt. NICHOLAS CHARLES WHYTE of Loughbrickland House (see A15 above)

E2) Lady Joan Beaufort (c.1377-1440) m. 2) Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland (1364-1425), and had

Sir Anthony Browne -
see Generation E6

E3) Richard Neville, 1st Earl of Salisbury (c.1398-1460) m. Lady Alice Montagu 
(1406-1462, descended from Edward I), and had
E4) John Neville, 1st Marquess Montagu (c.1431-1471) m. Isabel Ingaldesthorpe (1441-1476, descended from Edward I), and had
E5) Lady Lucy Neville (1468-1534) m. 2) Sir Anthony Browne of Calais (1443-1506, descended from Edward I), and had
E6) Sir Anthony Browne of Cowdray Park (c.1500-1548) m. Alice Gage (d. 1540), and had
E7) Mabel Browne (c.1535-1610) m. Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare (1525-1585, descended from Edward III), and had a son E8 and a dau F8 (see below)
E8) Henry Fitzgerald, 12th Earl of Kildare (1562-1597) m. Lady Frances Howard (1566-1628, descended from Edward III), and had
E9) Lady Bridget Fitzgerald (c.1590-1682) m. 2) Nicholas, 1st Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland (see D10 above)

Nugent Earls of Westmeath coat of arms

F8) Lady Mary Fitzgerald (1556-1610) m. Christopher Nugent, 5th Baron Delvin (1544-1602, descended from Edward I), and had
F9) Richard Nugent, 1st Earl of Westmeath (1583-1642) m. Jane Plunkett (c.1585-aft.1643, descended from Edward I), and had
F10) Christopher Nugent, Lord Delvin (1604-1625) m. Lady Anne MacDonnell (c.1605-by 1676, descended from Edward I), and had
F11) Richard Nugent, 2nd Earl of Westmeath (c.1622-1684) m. Mary Nugent (1623-1672, descended from Edward I), and had
F12) Thomas, 1st Baron Nugent of Riverston (c.1650-1715) m. Hon. Marianna Barnewall (see D12 above)

This concludes the series on the ancestry of guest blogger Desmond Clarke. The next blogpost will return to the ancestry of Margery (née Portal) (Rawstorne) Evan-Thomas (1881-1962).

Cheers,                          ------Brad