Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Whitebread
Variants: Wheatbread, Whitbread, Whitbred, Whitebred, Whytbred
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
Website: www.genealogywise.com/group/whitebread_whitbread_ONS
DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/public/whitebread
Contact: Mr Steven Whitebread
My name is Steven Whitebread. Welcome to my One-Name Study Profile Page. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions on your Whitbread/Whitebread ancestry.
The earliest occurrences of the name appear in the 13th century. A Robert Blauncpayn is mentioned in the Henry III patent rolls of 1230. The earliest Bedfordshire record is from 1254 and the family of Ion in Gravenhurst have been prominent landowners ever since. Samuel Whitbread the brewer came from this line.
Whit(e)breads do not seem to have been in the limelight very often, although most English people will immediately connect the name to the beer of the same name, or to one of the many events which have been sponsored by the Whitbread brewery, like the Round the World Yacht Race or the Whitbread book of the year award.
- Samuel Whitbread I (1720-1796)
- Samuel Whitbread II (1764-1815)
The first Samuel founded the famous brewery in London in 1742 and he was the Member of Parliament for Bedford 1768-90. His only son did not have the business acumen of his father, but carried on from his father as the (whig) MP for Bedford from 1790 and was considered a reformer. In 1806 he impeached Lord Melville for misuse of public money while Treasurer of the Navy. 1796-1806 he built the family home, Southill in Bedfordshire, where his descendants still live. On July 6th, 1815 Samuel cut his throat with a razor. See also 2 Bedfordshire County Council articles on The Whitbread Family, one for Cardington and the other for Southill. Samuel died 18 days after the Battle of Waterloo, not before it, as stated in this article. He was an admirer of Napoleon and judged him to be a 'glorious champion of liberty, equality and fraternity' and it is possible that he became depressed after Napoleon's downfall at Waterloo.
- Alice Whitbread (c. 1578 - ?)
Alice was a 2nd great-grand aunt of Samuel Whitbread I. She is probably the most often cited member of any Whitbread on the Internet. She married Gerard (or Gerat) Spencer on 10th November 1600 at Upper Gravenhurst, Bedfordshire. Four of their sons emigrated to New England around 1631 and many present-day Americans can trace their ancestry back to these Spencers. Much of the information on Alice's ancestry given on the internet is incorrect. The information given by Torrey (1956) appears to be accurate, except that his assumption that Alice's mother Eleanor was born either Radcliffe or Hervey has proven to be incorrect. Her maiden name was in fact Hill as evidenced from the will of her brother, Thomas Hill, d. 1628 Flitton, Bedfordshire.
- Ven. Thomas Whitebread (c. 1618 - 1679)
Thomas was the Jesuit Provincial Superior of England at the time of Charles II when Titus Oates falsely accused him and others of High Treason (Popish Plot). He was found guilty and was martyred (hung, drawn and quartered) at Tyburn. The plot was however soon uncovered and Thomas was beatified by the Pope. His feast day is June 20th. There is strong evidence that Thomas was a member of the Whit(e)bred family of Writtle and White Notley, Essex, many of whom were known catholic recusants. He was probably a nephew of the Agnes/Anna Whitebread mentioned below.
- Anna Whitebread and Henry Wright of White Notley, Essex
Anna Whitebread / Whitebred / Whytbred is another person who is mentioned in many online genealogies. In these accounts she is the daughter of Thomas Whitebread and she married Henry Wright of Upminster, Essex sometime before 1450 and their grandson Sir John Wright was first in the long line of Wrights who lived at Kelvedon Hall. The ancestry of Anna Whitebread is usually claimed to lead four generations back to John Whitebread born about 1325. This account is wrong and appears to stem from a misinterpretation of statements made in Philip Morant's 1768 book on the History of Essex. It is fairly clear that the Anna Whitebread he was referring to was one who married a Henry Wright of White Notley late in the 16th century (not the 15th). Such a person is fairly well documented. She was baptized Agnes Whytbred 1 Jul 1560 at White Notley. In several period documents she is also referred to as Ann or Anne and I have no doubt she is the person Morant was referring to. This Henry Wright has no known connection to the Kelvedon Hall family, so genealogies of that family should exclude any Whit(e)bread connections.
- Albert Arthur Whitbread (1922-2011)
Albert "Alf" Whitbread was a member of the 6th Airborne Division of the 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry which used gliders to reach and take the Horsa and Pegasus bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal in Normandy early on D Day, 6 June 1944. Alf was part of the second group of gliders which landed first at Horsa Bridge, before taking part in the battle for Pegasus Bridge. They held off many counter attacks by German troops and tanks until midday. Because of this, German soldiers and tanks were unable to reach the five beach landing points for the main allied invasion of France, preventing the death of an untold number of allied soldiers. Albert is descended from a Whitbread family who were living in the 'Rodings' area of Essex in the late 18th century and this family probably connects to a family living in nearby Fyfield a century earlier.
In the index of the 1881 census produced by the Church of Latter Day Saints, there are 1,208 Whitbreads (84%), 214 Whitebreads (15%) and 15 Wheatbreads (1%).
Numbers living today are not precisely known, but from the electoral register of 2002, the ratios appear to have changed strongly in favour of the Whitbreads (93:7:0.15). Some Whitebreads changed their name to Whitbread during the 19th century.
According to http://www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/search.php (the UK Office of National Statistics), in September 2002 there were 153 Whitebreads in England, Wales and the Isle of Man and it was ranked no. 25297, whereas there were 2502 Whitbreads, ranked 3044.
In the 16th century the name was largely concentrated in Sussex, London, Essex, Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire. Although it is not easy to distinguish the two major variants at that period, Whitebreads tended to occur south of the Thames, perhaps because of a difference in dialect.
At the time of the 1881 census Whitbread families lived in 38 different counties, but were concentrated in London/Middlesex (22.3%), Essex (17%), Bedfordshire (13.1%), Northants (6.3%) and Wiltshire (5.6%). By 2002, they had spread to 53 counties with 13.4% in Essex, 11.7% in London/Middlesex and 6.1% in Hertfordshire and 5% in Bedfordshire. In 1881 Whitebread families were living in 19 counties and were most prominent in Kent (34.9%), London/Middlesex (21.4%), Wiltshire (7.9%), Surrey (7.1%) and Leicestershire (5.6%). By 2002, they had spread to just 22 counties, and were still mostly living in Kent (37.2%), now followed by Yorkshire (7.3%), Essex and Northants (6.6% each).
Outside England, some Kentish Whitebreads emigrated to Canada and South Africa (e.g. my own family), whereas some Whitbreads chose to emigrate to the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Most Whitebread families in the US descend from the German family mentioned above, whereby other families keeping their original name, Weisbrod, are now more abundant in the US than either Whitbread or Whitebread (1990 data).
All the approx. 19,000 Whit(e)bread entries from the General Register Office Indexes for England & Wales (1837-2005) have been extracted. William, John and George are the most common male first names over this period, and Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth the most common female names, although a total of 951 different first names have been used. If anyone is interested, I can supply more Whit(e)bread statistics based on these data. Likewise, more than 5770 pre-1837 parish register entries have been found.
I have copies of 203 wills, administrations and inventories from 1468 to 1858 and 127 of these have been fully transcribed. At least another 30 wills have yet to be acquired. All grants of probate since 1858 in England and Wales have also been recorded to 1941.
I have listings from all of the available censuses (UK, US and Canada). Many of the available indexes hopelessly muddle Whitebreads with Whiteheads (and sometimes Whithead for Whitbread), making a complete listing very difficult. However I am continually trying to improve on the transcriptions I have.
In addition to these, any occurrences of the name worldwide are actively sought (less intensively also of the non-English equivalents Blauncpain, Weisbrod and Wyssbrod) and family trees are being constructed using evidence from the available data (primary sources where possible). I have about 1700 bmd records from countries outside the UK, mostly post-1837.
The Guild of One-Name Studies The following older mail forums are available: http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.whitbread/mb.ashx http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.whitebread/mb.ashx http://genforum.genealogy.com/whitbread/ http://genforum.genealogy.com/whitebread/
A Facebook Group for Whitbread families can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/80325091900
Some Whit(e)bread family trees are available on the web:
Bedfordshire: ThePeerage.com has gathered together a lot of information on the brewery family, from 1720 up to the present. Essex: Ingatestone/Loughton by John Odell Hampshire: Bill McNitt of Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides some information on the Whitebread family of Brading, Isle of Wight and the related Warder Family Wiltshire: Alex McGahey has done considerable work on the genealogy of Wiltshire Whit(e)breads, although only limited information is available from his site. Also, Christine Upwood has an excellent site covering the Rushall/Tidcombe families.
More links can be found at linkpendium
Literature: Some key publications providing biographical or genealogical information on various Whit(e)breads: Bennett J.S. 1982. Who was Fr Thomas Whitbread? Recusant History 16: 91-98. A very well researched and convincing article on the probable roots of Father Thomas Whitbread. Contains a lot of genealogical information on the Essex Whitbreads of Writtle and White Notley. Fulford R. 1967. Samuel Whitbread 1764-1815. A Study in Opposition. Macmillan, London. 336 pp. A biography of Samuel Whitbread II. Ritchie, B. 1992. An Uncommon Brewer. The story of Whitbread 1742-1992. James & James, London. 144 pp. Mainly covering the brewery, but also the people behind it. Torrey, C.A. 1956. The Whitbread family of Gravenhurst, Bedfordshire, England. The American Genealogist 127, 32(3):129-142. A very well researched account of the various Whitbread families of Gravenhurst in the 16th and 17th centuries. Various authors 1951. Southill. A Regency House. Faber & Faber, London. 73 pp. + 90 Figs. A look at the architecture and contents of the Whitbread family home, includes a family tree from Samuel Whitbread I. Whitebread, C. 1960. George Whitebread of Seven Oaks, County Kent, England, and some of his descendants. Privately published in Washington, DC. 14 pp. Family history of the Whitebreads who emigrated from Kent, England to Canada in the 1840s. Whitebread, S.A. 1902. Genealogy of the WHITEBREAD family in America. Privately published in Ottawa, Kansas. 52 pp. Detailed genealogical information on the family of Heinrich Weisbrod, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1784. A scanned copy of this publication can be found in the FamilySearch Historical Books section (enter Whitebread in the author box). Whitebread, D.A. 1989. Geneology of the Whitebread Family. The Beam Co., Mountain Home, Arkansas. A loose-leaf updated version of the 1902 book. Whitbread, S.C. 2007. Plain Mr Whitbread - Seven Centuries of a Bedfordshire Family. The Book Castle. Dunstable, UK, 160 pp. ISBN: 1903747759. Published in celebration of the Author's 70th Birthday. Please note that there is probably an error in his line of descendancy. He states the father of John (c1546-1598) to be Lawrence (c1525-1552). According to Torrey (1956), John's father was Thomas (c1520-?1585), and I believe this version is correct, based on the available evidence.
Keywords: Whitebread family history; Whitbread family history; Wheatbread family history; Whitebread genealogy; Whitbread genealogy; Wheatbread genealogy
Note: The email address given below is apparently not always 100% reliable. If you have difficulty contacting me (e.g. no reply within one week), please try: whitebreads1591 at the following provider: gmail.com