Nathaniel Whateley (1655–1704)
Nathaniel Whateley (or Whately or Wheatley) was the son of the apothecary William Whateley of Banbury, and was born in c.1655. He may be the son of William Whateley recorded as "Nehemiah" who was baptised in Banbury on 3 January 1655/6.
Whateley was matriculated as an apothecary at the University of Oxford on 30 October 1679, aged 24.
The diarist Anthony Wood was evidently a customer of Whateley's, because he records a receipt (ii.452) on 1 July 1679 reading: "Receaved in full of this bill the summe of one pound one shilling by mee Nathaniell Wheatley".
On 26 February 1681/2, according to Wood (iii.7), Nathaniel Whateley the apothecary was married by Baptist Levinz in Magdalen College Chapel to "Mr Taylor's daughter". The marriage register of St Mary the Virgin Church records a marriage on that date of Nathaniel Wheatley to Elizabeth, daughter of the Oxford apothecary William Taylor. They had the following four children:
- William, baptised at St Mary the Virgin on 14 December 1682
- Elizabeth, baptised at St Mary the Virgin on 11 November 1683
- Nathaniel, baptised at St Mary the Virgin on 7 January 1686/7
- Thomas, baptised at St Mary the Virgin on 18 March 1687/8
On 5 April 1704 Whateley's second son Nathaniel was matriculated at the University of Oxford at the age of 16 from Merton College.
Whateley died on 10 September 1704 at the age of 49, and was buried at St Mary the Virgin Church three days later: he is described in the burial register as being "worth 600li". Administration of his will was granted at Oxford on 5 December 1704. His wife Elizabeth died on 29 December 1723 at the age of 65, and is buried with him. Their tombstone in the floor of St Mary the Virgin Church is shown below.
Whateley's children
Nathaniel Whateley (1686–1721) was awarded his BA from Oriel College in 1707, and obtained his MA in 1710. He died at the age of 35, and was buried at St Mary the Virgin Church on 16 July 1721
Thomas Whateley (1687–1731) was apprenticed to a milliner in 1705. Three of his sons died in infancy and were buried in St Mary the Virgin Church: Cuthbert on 10 January 1715/16, Nathaniel on 14 December 1718, and Thomas on 25 November 1720. Thomas died in 1731 at the age of 45, and there is an inscription in a diamond floor tile in the floor of the Church of St Mary the Virgin:
In
memory of
Thomas Whately
who died Janry ye 27th 1731.
Aged 45 years. Also 3 of his sons
Cuthbert, Nathaniel
& Thomas, who all
died in their
infancy.