Thomas Whitehouse, History of the Town and Borough of Wigan
'A History of the Town and Borough of Wigan' by Thomas Whitehouse, including watercolour illustrations, produced in 1829. (Item collection code: AB/Wi/Whitehouse - A/1/653)
Thomas Whitehouse (1762-1847) was a wine and spirit merchant operating in Wigan c.1780 onwards. He was also an amateur local historian and painter. His handwritten manuscript contains 46 watercolour illustrations alongside text detailing the history of the town and surrounding area. Although the manuscript is dated 1829, Whitehouse continued to add to it, as some painting are dated from the 1830s.
Whitehouse married Alice Bibby (1767-1824) in 1799. They had six children and resided on Hallgate, before moving to Wrightington around 1806, where Thomas was recorded as a 'yeoman'. The family later moved to Manchester, living at Newton and Barton. Thomas and Alice were both buried at All Saints, Wigan.
The manuscript was purchased from the descendants of the Whitehouse family in 1909 by Henry Tennyson Folkard for Wigan Library. It appears to have been re-bound around this time.
Please note that some of the images from the Whitehouse manuscript have been cropped and rotated to provide a better copy of the illustrations; no text or images have been removed in doing so.
Sources:
- All Saints, Wigan Parish Registers
- 1841 Census
- Wigan Examiner, 23 October 1909, p.5
15 items were found within Thomas Whitehouse, History of the Town and Borough of Wigan
