Roger Whitley (? 1618-97) of Peel Hall, Cheshire, was a Royalist, Deputy Postmaster General, and an MP.

Papers of Roger Whitley, mainly in his hand, including notebooks containing information about foreign affairs and a royalist rising; copies of proceedings in Parliament, 1667-77; a diary, 1684-97; and commonplace books, in which Whitley collected material under general headings.

The papers came into the possession of the Mainwaring family of Over Peover, Cheshire, presumably through Whitley's eldest daughter Elizabeth, who married Sir John Mainwaring (1656-1702). They were among the papers deposited by Sir Harry Mainwaring in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, and listed by R. Fawtier, Handlist of the Mainwaring and Jodrell manuscripts at present in the custody of the John Rylands Library (Manchester, 1923, reprinted, with additions, from The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 7 [1922-3]).

The papers were bought by the Bodleian Library at Sotheby's in 1973.

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/admissions/).

M. Clapinson and T.D. Rogers, Summary Catalogue of Post-Medieval Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford. Acquisitions 1916-1975. (Oxford, 1991), vol. I, nos. 40046-57.

Royalists | England | 17th century

Diaries | 17th century

Whitley | Roger | c. 1617-1697 | Royalist, Deputy Postmaster General, and MP

Great Britain | Politics and government | 17th century