Your Letters
To the Editor:I’d like to thank everyone who has bought my cards and children’s personalised story books throughout the year.
I was able to send a cheque for £100 to the Helen and Douglas House children’s hospice thanks to your support. There is still time to order a personalised copy of ‘Once Upon a Christmas...’. This is the story of a little child (personalised with your grandchild’s name) who goes for a walk on Christmas Eve with his/her grandmother and discovers the magic of The Lee: Santa’s post box, the magic wishing well, the Christmas Fairies helter-skelter tree and Mr Frostie standing on The Green.
It is a hardback book with photos and illustrations on every page, all the profit goes to the children’s hospice.
Anthea Hartley
Lee Common
Watch out!To the Editor:
Standing near my front door on a calm day towards the end of October, I heard a tremendous cracking noise coming from the upper branches of Grove Wood opposite.
I was amazed to see a very large branch seemingly shoot out with some force from the wood and fall full square on Ballinger Road with a thumping whack. I had to drag it off the carriageway onto the verge, because it was too heavy to lift. It would have badly damaged a car and seriously flattened a pedestrian or cyclist.
Luckily no one was around even at that normally busy time of the morning. The moral of this tale? Keep a weather eye open for what’s above you and remember Murphy’s Law.
Ted Brumpton
Lee Common
History in the making
To the Editor:
My wife and I recently spent two days in Buckinghamshire. One of those days was spent hunting for, finding, and revelling in the idyllic community of The Lee.
It was more beautiful than I ever imagined it would be. The people we met at the flower show and at the Old Church were so kind; many thanks to all of them.
My Whitman progenitors lived in The Lee in the 1500s and early 1600s. Richard Whitman who may have been the son of Henry and Alice Axtell Whitman probably grew up, married and raised his family in The Lee in the mid 1500s and early 1600s. He died in The Lee circa 13th January 1631.
His widow was Katherine (perhaps Taylor) and they had at least three children.
- Elizabeth born ca. 1592, married 22nd February 1619 to Thomas Streame. Their entry in ‘Marriage Licenses Granted by the Bishop of London 1619-20’ indicates that she is the ‘dau of Richard Whitman, of Leigh Co. Bucks, Husbandman’. They were married in St. Bene’t and St. Peter, Paul’s Wharf, London. They also had three children: Thomas, Benjamin, John and Elizabeth. They may or may not have been raised in The Lee.
- Zachariah was born ca. 1596 and married Sarah Brisco 10th June 1630 in Chesham. They had one son Zachy. The family and two nephews, John and Thomas Streame left London on 19th September 1635 for New England aboard the ‘Truelove’. Zachy died probably shortly after they arrived and they apparently had no other children. Zachariah died 23rd April 1663 in Connecticut.
- John, my direct ancestor, was born ca. 1602, probably in The Lee. His oldest son Thomas was born in 1629 in England. John’s wife’s name has not been authenticated, but because seven of his children named a daughter Mary, her name may also have been Mary.
I don’t believe there are any Whitmans living in Buckinghamshire now, but if anyone reading this knows something of this family I would be most grateful to have any information about these relatives.
Henry’s will, and his son Henry’s will, indicate that they are to be ‘buried in the church yard of St John the Baptist of the Lye’. He apparently left money to the high altar there and to the church of Lincoln.
Charles Whitman, California
whitman33@sbcglobal.net USA.