This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of the white acre.' No doubt many small localities scattered over the country bearing this name have helped to swell the large total of Whitakers found in our modern directories. Overand Nether Whitacre are parishes in Warwickshire.

Simon de Withacre, Leicestershire, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Alan Witacur, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard de Whitacre, Northamptonshire, ibid.

Jordan de Whitacre, Northamptonshire, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

Henricus Wyteacre, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Willelmus de Wetaker, 1379: ibid.

Rogerus Whitteacres, 1379: ibid.

1618. Married — John Whitaker and Mary Storey: St. Dionis Back church.

This is the most usual modern form, but there are several variant spellings in use, including Whiteacre, which reveals the derivation of the name. It appears in the Patent Rolls as de Whiteacre at Drogheda in 1403 and at Trim in 1408; Robert Whytacre was bailiff of Drogheda in 1305(he is also called Quitaker in the Justiciary Rolls) and there are several other mediaeval references to men of the name in or near Meath. Griffith's Valuation and other modern sources find the name still in the midland counties, but from the seventeenth century it becomes increasingly well known in Ulster. In 1636 Thomas Whitaker was mayor of Carrickfergus and a generation later the name occurs occasionally in the northern hearth money rolls. It is now fairly numerous in Ulster and also in the city of Cork, but its absence from eighteenth century Cork records shows that its connexion with that city is not of long standing.

(English) Dweller at 1 the White Field [Old English hwít + æcer] 2 the Wheatfield [Old English, hwœte + œcer] The two Warwicksh. Whitacres were Netherwhitacre and Overwythacre (for Over-whytacre) in the 14th cent.

This name (formerly Whiteacre) has been associated with Cos. Meath. and Louth since the fourteenth century. SIF 153

(English) Dweller at, or in, the white field.

1. "The Whitakers of High Whitaker, an old-established family, were originally Whitacres of Whitacre, in the vills of Padiham and Simonstone." Folks of Shields, p. 22. 2. Two parishes in Warwickshire are so called. 3. Mr. Ferguson considers it to be the same name as Wihtgar, borne by a nephew of Cerdic, King of the West Saxons.

Local. The north part of a graveyard allotted to the poor was called Whittaker, from wite, a penalty, and acre,—a place of burial for criminals. A culprit who could not discharge the penalty or wite became a "witetheow," and was buried in the wite—acre. Bailey defines Whittaker "the north—east part of a flat or shoal—the middle ground."

The Whittakers or Whitakers are numerous in Lancashire. From the 14th to the 16th century a gentle family of this name lived at High Whitaker or Whitacre in the vills of Simonstone and Padiham, in the parish of Whalley: the Whitakers of Holme and those of Henthorn branched off in the 15th century and those of Healy about 1620 (W. W.). The name was frequent in the parish of Rochdale in the 16th century (F.). During last century the Whittakers were well - to - do Manchester townsmen (B.). The name is just as frequent in the West Riding and less so in Cheshire.

Whitaker, or Whittaker, is a common West Riding name. An eminent minister, named Whitacre, who flourished in the 17th century, was bom at Wakefield (Mag. Brit.). The Whittakers are more fully referred to under "Lancashire".