William Whitshed
Family
William Whitshed was an Irish politician and Judge and was born in 1679, the eldest son of eleven children of Thomas Whitshed, who was a barrister and Member of Parliament for Carysfort in County Wicklow and his wife Mary, the daughter of Mark Quin, an Alderman of Dublin. He inherited Killincarrick House and lands at Jobstown Co Dublin from his father, who died in 1697. His father Thomas was the son and heir of William Whitshed a Dublin merchant and Esther Whitshed nee Thacker. William died unmarried and with no heir in 1727 aged just 48. He was buried in St Michael’s Church, High Street in Dublin. (Though St Michaels Church was mostly demolished, with just the tower surviving). Whitshed resided in St Mary’s Street Dublin and also had residences at Killincarrig near Greystones and at Stormanstown Co Dublin.
Career
In 1694 William entered the middle Temple and was called to the bar and became knight of the Shire for the County of Wicklow in 1703, which means he became an Member of Parliament for the County of Wicklow. In 1709 Whitshed became Solicitor General for Ireland. In 1713 his income was estimated at £1,500. He later went to England, through returned to Ireland in 1714 as Chief Justice to the Kings Bench. In 1727 he was appointed Chief Justice to the Common Pleas, though later that year William Whitshed died at the age of just 48.
Estate
His lands at Killincarrig were eventually inherited by the Hawkins family through the marriage of Bishop Hawkins to the Catherine Keene, the niece of William Whitshed. The Hawkins Family took the name Whitshed, with their son James assuming the name Hawkins Whitshed.
Bibliography
Ball, Francis Elrington (1926) The Judges in Ireland, 1221 – 1921, John Murray, London (1926).
Taylor, Aline Mackenzie; The Patrimony of James Quin, The legend and the facts, Tulane studies in English. Volume VIII, Tulane University, New Orleans (1958)
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