WHITGIFT, JOHN, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Great Grimsby; was educated at Cambridge, and became Fellow and Master of Pembroke College; escaped persecution under Queen Mary, and on the accession of Elizabeth was ordained a priest; after a succession of preferments, both as a theologian and an ecclesiastic, became archbishop in 1583; attended Queen Elizabeth on her deathbed, and crowned James I.; was an Anglican prelate to the backbone, and specially zealous against the Puritans; contemplated, with no small apprehension, the accession of James, “in terror of a Scotch mist coming down on him with this new Majesty from the land of Knox, or Nox, Chaos, and Company”; his last words were, with uplifted hands and eyes, a prayer for the Church, uttered in King James’s hearing (1530-1604).

WHITHORN, a small town in Wigtownshire, 12 m.  S. of Wigtown, celebrated as the spot where St. Ninian planted Christianity in Scotland, and founded a church to St. Martin in 397.

WHITMAN, WALT, the poet of “Democracy,” born in Long Island, U.S., of parents of mingled English and Dutch blood; was a large-minded, warm-hearted man, who led a restless life, and had more in him than he had training to unfold either in speech or act; a man eager, had he known how, to do service in the cause of his much-loved mankind; wrote “Leaves of Grass,” “Drum-Taps,” and “Two Rivulets” (1819-1892).

WHITNEY, ELI, an American inventor, born in Massachusetts; invented the cotton-gin, a machine for cleaning seed-cotton, and became a manufacturer of firearms, by which he realised a large fortune (1765-1825).

WHITNEY, WILLIAM DWIGHT, American philologist, born in Massachusetts; studied at Yale College, where he became professor of Sanskrit, in which he was a proficient, and to the study of which he largely contributed; has done much for the science of language (1827-1894).

WHITSUNDAY, the seventh Sunday after Easter, a festival day of the Church kept in commemoration of the descent of the Holy Ghost.

WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF, the American “Quaker Poet,” born at Haverhill, in Massachusetts, the son of a poor farmer; wrought, like Burns, at field work, and acquired a loving sympathy with Nature, natural people, and natural scenes; took to journalism at length, and became a keen abolitionist and the poet-laureate of abolition; his poems are few and fugitive (1807-1893).

WHITTINGTON, SIR RICHARD, Lord Mayor of London, born at Pauntley, Gloucestershire; came to London, prospered in business, was elected Lord Mayor thrice over, and knighted; this is the Whittington of the nursery tale, “Dick Whittington and his Cat” (1538-1623).

WHITWORTH, SIR JOSEPH, eminent mechanician, born at Stockport; the rival of Lord Armstrong in the invention of ordnance; invented artillery of great range and accuracy; was made a baronet in 1869 (1803-1887).

WHYTE-MELVILLE, GEORGE JOHN, novelist of the sporting-field, born at Mount Melville, near St. Andrews; entered the army, and for a time served in it; met his death while hunting (1821-1878).