DICK (OR SHOULD I SAY RICHARD) WHITTINGTON

The pantomime season will soon be here again and parents and grandparents everywhere are looking forward (Oh yes they are!) to taking the children to see Cinderella, Mother Goose and Dick Whittington. Which reminds me of Kilvert's diaries. The Rev. Francis Kilvert, a Victorian clergyman who was born in the reign of Queen Victoria and who died in 1879, kept a diary in which he recorded his everyday thoughts and doings. On Tuesday, 18th January, 1870 he recorded a visit to the Crystal Palace, finishing up the entry with 'At 2.30 the best pantomime of the season began, Dick Whittingham and his Cat'. Is this a slight mental aberration on his part? Did he really mean Dick Whittington and his Cat? I can't find any other mention of Dick Whittingham anywhere, but I do know about a Dick, or rather Richard Whittington, a real person who came to London to seek his fortune and who became Mayor of London on three occasions.

According to the traditional pantomime, the ten-year-old Dick Whittington was a poor boy from Gloucestershire who walked to London to seek his fortune. He found work in the house of a rich merchant Fitzwarren, and fell in love with Fitzwarren's daughter, Alice. Dick had a cat to keep down the mice in the attic where he slept. Fitzwarren invited his servants to put money into a sailing voyage to Africa. Dick had no money, but gave his cat to the captain to sell. Sometime later, Dick decided there was no future for him in London, and left to go home to Gloucestershire. He stopped on top of Highgate Hill on the way out of London. There he heard the bells of London ringing - they seemed to say: 'Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London'. Dick thought this was a good omen and returned to Fitzwarren's house. He learnt that the ship had returned with great news. The sailing party arrived in a foreign land where they found that the King of Barbary's palace was infested with mice (or was it rats). Dick's cat killed or drove out all the rats (or was it mice). The King was so impressed with the cat's prowess as a mouser (or ratter) that he paid a huge sum of money for him. Dick was now a very wealthy man. He married Alice Fitzwarren, and eventually became Lord Mayor of London, not once, but three times.

Unfortunately, this is a myth which has launched a thousand pantomimes. The story that Dick Whittington was a pauper with a cat who came to London with a handkerchief tied to the end of a stick to see if the streets were paved with gold is a load of old tripe. Unlike his pantomime counterpart, he was never poor. Richard Whittington was born around 1350 in Pauntley, Gloucestershire, the younger son of William Whittington, Lord of the Manor of Pauntley. Sir William died in 1358. The oldest son inherited the estate, so Richard travelled to London to find work. As for the cat, I really doubt that he had one. The people in medieval England had an entirely different attitude to felines - a lad of Dick's age would have been more likely to stone a cat to death for sport than keep one as a pet. Not very nice, but true.

He started his life in London as an apprentice to a merchant, and afterwards set up in business on his own. And this is where the cat comes in. Richard traded in coals brought to London in a type of sailing vessel known as a 'cat'. Or maybe it came in because he was making a profit, and a term in common use in those days for a profit was the French word 'achat', meaning 'a purchase', whereas the French 'chat' means 'cat'. Whichever it was, no feline is ever mentioned in any biography of Richard Whittington.

He eventually became a 'mercer', dealing in valuable cloth from abroad, such as silks, velvets and cloth of gold. The main market for selling these cloths was the Royal Court. He supplied large quantities to King Richard II (who owed him £1,000 when he was deposed in 1399) and to King Henry IV. Richard became rich. After 1397 he often lent large sums of money to the Crown. In return he was allowed to export wool without paying customs duty on it.

He became a City alderman, or magistrate, in 1393. In 1397 the Mayor, Adam Bamme, died in office and the King chose Whittington to become the new mayor. And here is another discrepancy with the myth - 'Lord Mayor' was not a title used in Whittington's lifetime. It didn't come into being until 1540. He was elected as mayor for the following year, and again for 1406-7 and 1419-20. This made him Mayor of London four times, although he was only elected to that position three times, which undoubtedly gave rise to the 'three times Lord Mayor'. Whittington died in March 1423. His wife Alice, daughter of Sir Ivo Fitzwaryn (or Fitzwarren) of Dorset, had died before him. They had no children.

By the time of his death, Whittington had amassed a fortune totalling over £7,000 - making him the medieval equivalent of multi-millionaire. In his will he asked that his great wealth be used to the benefit of the City of London. And so the money was used to establish an almshouse, a college of priests and a library, and also to carry out a number of other public works. These included improvements to the water supply and building a public lavatory, which became known as 'Whittington's Longhouse'. These gifts left in his will made him famous. However, the people of London had no idea how he had made his money. Stories began about how a poor boy became rich with the help of his cat. There is no evidence that Whittington ever kept a cat, and as the son of a Lord he was never very poor. But, despite being untrue, the stories flourished. In 1606 a play was produced which undoubtedly brought the story to the attention of people who could not read. The story continued to grow in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, the story became the subject for pantomimes, and other characters were added. And with the popularity of pantomimes over the years the story of Dick Whittington and the cat that made him rich and famous is familiar to thousands, if not millions, of people who have never heard of the 'real' Richard Whittington.

Bill Hutchings