Wittington History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Wittington was first found in Derbyshire at Whittington, a parish, in the union of Chesterfield, hundred of Scarsdale. There are others locals of the same name found in Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

To confuse the reader more, we draw your attention to the following quote under the township of Whittingham: "Warin de Whitington, who lived in the reign of John, held lands in the township, and his descendants held the manor in the reign of Edward II. The family long continued connected with the place; and a Richard Whittingham, who had two sons and a daughter, was living in the middle of the last century. [1700s]"

Richard Whittington (c. 1354-1423), the medieval merchant and politician who was the inspiration for the folk tale "Dick Whittington and His Cat" was from Gloucestershire, but his family claim descent from Staffordshire. Like the rhyme claims, he was in fact, Lord Mayor of London four times. 1

The Whittington Stone on Highgate Hill in front of Whittington Hospital has a statue in honour of Whittington's legendary cat.

"A nefarious attempt has been made to rob him of his cherished and beneficent cat, whose existence has been explained away as a popular error. She is said to have been nothing more than a flat-bottomed boat, such as are commonly used in the Thames for carrying coal from the colliers to the wharf, then known as "cats," of which he owned a considerable number. With these, as is asserted, he built up his fortune. Others, again, maintain that his success in life " was the result of commercial transactions, called in the fourteenth century ' achatting.'" But, as if to refute these laboured and far-fetched derivations, an efifigy that curiously confirmed the old belief was brought to light in 1861. " In an old house, then pulled down in Westgate Street, Gloucester, was found a sculptured tablet intended to be placed over a doorway or chimney-piece, representing a boy in a long loose gown reaching to his feet, with a hood dropped on his shoulder, and fastened by a button to the throat, holding a cat in his arms. The Whittingtons had, according to old deeds, a tenement in Westgate Street in 1460." 2