Nathaniel Whetham

Who was Nathaniel Whetham?

Nathaniel Whetham was an English baker and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1654 and 1659. He fought in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War.

Whetham was the son of Thomas Whetham and his wife Dorothy Hooper. He was baptised at Burstock on 25 November 1604. He was apprenticed in London to Edward Terrill, the baker to the Inner Temple. By 1632 he had completed his apprenticeship and was appointed steward to the court of the Worshipful Company of Bakers. He joined the "Company of the Plough" which had secured a patent from Sir Ferdinando Gorges on land in South-East Maine with the aim of emigrating there but the venture was unsuccessful and he continued his trade in the Company of Whitebakers.

When the Civil War broke out, Whetham joined the City of London militia and was appointed major of dragoons and a captain of one of their companies under colonel Richard Browne. Whetham and his dragoons were stationed near Aylesbury where his troops were restless and an attack on the Royalist garrison at Brill was abortive. However, he was appointed Governor of Northampton and for the next four to five years he held the town on behalf of Parliament. In October 1643 he repelled an advance by Prince Rupert and his twenty-two troops of horse and 700 men and then raided Royalist troops along Watling Street by night. In April 1644 he organised the rescue of over thirty parliamentary soldiers from Banbury Castle. In August 1644 he was described as 'Commander in chiefe' and 'valliant and faithfull' in the first siege of Banbury Castle. He remained at Northampton for most of the next three years and took part in the second siege of Banbury Castle.