W H I 
high county, Pennsylvania, on the Lehigh. Population 
2551. 
WHITEHALL, a post village of the United States, in 
Mecklenburg county, North Carolina. 
WHITEHAM HILL, in Berkshire, England, 576 feet 
high. 
WHITEHAVEN, a large, populous, and improving sea¬ 
port and market town of England, in Cumberland, situated 
on a bay of the Irish sea. The town is built on a regular 
plan ; the streets are generally spacious and clean, and cut 
each other at right angles. Buildings are neat, and many of 
them genteel: the shops exhibit a degree of elegance not 
often met with in the north: the houses are covered with 
blue slate, which gives the town a beautiful appearance from 
the adjoining heights. There are three churches, St. James, 
Trinity, and St. Nicholas; besides several meeting-houses, 
a Roman Catholic chapel, a public dispensary, a free school, 
lately endowed, charity schools, &c. Here is a commodious 
residence of the Earl of Lonsdale, called the Castle, which 
possesses some splendid paintings of the old masters. The 
piers, or moles of the harbour, have been greatly enlarged 
and improved. They are—1st, The Breast Work and Old 
Quay—2d, The Old Tongue—3d, the New Tongue—4th, 
The New Quay—5th, The New Work—6lh, The North 
Wall. The New Work (formerly called the Bulwark), has 
been entirely rebuilt on a larger plan; and to the extremity 
of the old wall several yards have been added, which approach 
towards the New Work, and by narrowing the entrance into 
this part of the harbour, was intended to preserve the place 
from swells of the sea, but has proved in a great measure in¬ 
effectual. Besides these improvements, foundations were laid 
down in 1809, for further altering the harbour; but not yet 
built upon. Whitehaven contains six yards for ship-build¬ 
ing ; and it is not unusual to see 12 or 16 new vessels upon 
the stocks at the same time. The vessels built at Whitehaven 
have obtained considerable repute for strength, burden, and 
a small draught of water. Here are two sail-cloth manufac¬ 
tories of considerable extent, and three large roperies. A 
very handsome theatre, on a plan copied from that of the 
Bath theatre, was built by subscription, in 1769. Three 
banks havebeen opened here; one in 1786, another in 1793, 
and a third in 1807. The coal-works, being near the sea, 
are very convenient for shipping; some of these mines are 
wrought a great distance under the sea, and others beneath 
the town; which circumstance, in its consequence, occa¬ 
sioned great alarm to the inhabitants some years ago, when, 
owing to the falling in of some of the old coal-works, the 
ground under several of the houses gave way. About 18 
houses were in this manner destroyed, and the pavement in 
one of the streets was rent in several places. This alarming 
accident happened in 1791. 
Whitehaven has risen, within the last 170 years, from a 
few huts to a wealthy and flourishing town. In the survey 
taken in 1566, Whitehaven consisted only of six fishermen’s 
cabins, and one small bark, about nine tons burden, sufficient 
to supply the religious society of St. Bees with fish, salt, and 
other articles of their diet. In 1633, there were no more 
than nine or ten thatched cottages. Sir John Lowther soon 
after conceiving the project of working the coal mines, and 
improving the commerce of this county, obtained from king 
Charles II. in 1666, a grant of all the ungranted lands within 
this district; and in 1678, he obtained all the lands, for two 
miles northward, between high and low water mark. From 
this period we may date the commencement of Whitehaven’s 
flourishing state. The markets on Tuesday, Thursday, and 
Saturday, are well supplied with all kinds of provisions; and 
it has a fair the 12th August; 40 miles south-west of Carlisle, 
and 305 north-west of London. Population, in 1821, 
16,522. 
WHITEHAVEN, a post village of the United States, in 
Somerset county, Maryland. 
WHITE HEAD, a cape of Ireland, on the coast of Antrim, 
at the entrance into Belfast Lough, a little to the south of 
Black Head. 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1662. 
W H I 641 
WHITEHEAD (William), an English poet, was born at 
Cambridge in 1714-5, educated at Winchester school, where 
from his talent in writing verse he acquired the notice of 
Pope; and upon his return to Cambridge, obtained a scholar¬ 
ship of Clare-hall. As a poet, Whitehead’s highest ambition 
was to resemble the manner of Pope; and of his proficiency 
he gave a specimen in his “ Epistle on the Danger of writ¬ 
ing Verse,” 1741. In the following year he was elected fel¬ 
low of Clare-hall, and pursued his studies with a view to the 
church; but his poetical talents produced a change in his 
circumstances, and in his purpose. Being recommended to 
the Earl of Jersey as a proper tutor for his eldest son, he re¬ 
moved, in 1745, to the earl’s house in London, where his 
treatment was in the highest degree liberal. Having leisure 
for indulging his taste for literary pursuits, he turned his atten¬ 
tion to dramatic composition, and produced a tragedy, en¬ 
titled “ The Roman Father,” which was exhibited with 
applause upon the stage in Drury-lane in 1750. In 1754 
he published another, the title of which was “ Creusa,” which 
was also favourably received. With 'the profits arising from 
these two performances he very honourably discharged the 
debts of his father, who had died insolvent. In this year he 
accompanied his pupil, Viscount Villiers, and Viscount Nune- 
ham, son of Earl Harcourt, on their travels, which continued 
more than two years; and on his return he published an 
“ Ode to the Tiber,” and six elegiac epistles, which were 
much applauded. Lady Jersey, during his absence, had pro¬ 
cured for him the appointment of secretary and register to 
the order of the Bath; and in 1757, on the death of Cibber, 
he succeeded to the laureat, which he rendered respectable; 
though in the discharge of the customary duties of the office, 
he did not escape abuse, and especially that of Churchill, 
whose popular satire almost overwhelmed the reputation of 
the laureat. Lady Jersey, in consideration of his services as 
governor to her son, invited him to take up his residence in 
her house, where he passed fourteen years, frequently visiting 
Lord Harcourt, much respected by his noble hosts and his 
former pupils. He still amused himself by presenting to the 
public occasional productions, one of which was a comedy 
of the moral or sentimental class, entitled “ The School for 
Lovers.” After passing through life tranquilly and pleasantly, 
and maintaining an estimable character, he died suddenly, 
April, 1785, in his 70th year. Of his works two volumes 
were published by himself, and to these a third was added 
by Mr. Mason, who prefixed memoirs of his life and writings, 
to which we refer.— Gen. Biog. 
WHITEHEAD (George), an eminent person among the 
Quakers, was born in 1636, at Sunbigg, in Westmoreland. 
Attaching himself early in life to this society, and engaging 
in the propagation of his doctrine, he partook of the suffer¬ 
ings which, in that age, were the ordinary lot of its active 
members; and was once, simply for having preached at Nay- 
land, in Suffolk, severely whipped by order of two justices 
as a vagabond ; a proceeding which served, as might have 
been expected, to increase the disposition of the people to 
hear him. 
In the year 1672, when Charles II. issued his declaration 
for suspending the penal statutes against non-conformists, 
Whitehead solicited and obtained an order under the great 
seal for the discharge of about four hundred Quakers, many 
of whom had been for years under close confinement. He 
records, with expressions of satisfaction, the circumstance 
that some other dissenters also partook at this time of the 
benefit of his exertions. On several other occasions he was 
concerned in applications on the Quakers’ behalf to Charles 
II. and James II. And after the Revolution, when the To¬ 
leration Bill was before parliament, he was particularly ser¬ 
viceable to his friends in that matter; as likewise in taking a 
part in those representations, which procured the acceptance 
of their affirmation in lieu of an oath. A profession of faith 
being proposed for insertion in the above act, in terms which 
to the Quakers would not have been quite satisfactory, 
Whitehead and his coadjutors proposed the following, as 
their own belief on the points to which it relates, and which 
6 Y was 
