Whistler Family Sketches Dramatis Personæ   In the seventeenth century the Thames Valley – following the River Thames in its journey from Oxford to Wallingford, then flowing on to Reading, and drifting to Henley-on-Thames – was the home to a clan of Whistler families. The cast of characters includes Daniel Whistler, president of the Royal College of Physicians; Humphrey Whistler, mayor of Oxford; John Whistler, recorder and MP of Oxford; the entrepreneurs Henry Whistler of London, Ralph Whistler of Londonderry, and Gabriel Whistler of Hampshire; the parish rectors Henry Whistler of Whitchurch, Oxfordshire, Hugh Whistler of Faccombe, Hampshire, Thomas Whistler of Silchester, Hampshire, and John Whistler of Clapham, West Sussex; the poet Anthony Whistler; and the lords of the manor in the Thameside parishes of Whitchurch and Goring.   In the eighteenth century, the parish registers of north Hampshire record a number of Whistler families. The appearance is that these families were descended from the Thames Valley Whistlers – but the connection has not been established. Scenes from Basingstoke and the Area   An American branch of the Whistler family originated with John Whistler who was born in Ireland and came to America in 1776. His son, George Washington Whistler, was the father of the famous artist James McNeill Whistler. A fascinating account of this family has been prepared by Cheryl Whistler Garrison at the web pages: Whistler Family. It is thought that their ancestral home was the Thames Valley. However, the archival record that is needed to confirm this is elusive to locate.   From early times, the Whistler family was established in Norfolk and Suffolk. For example, in the early seventeenth century Roger Whistler was a master dyer of Norwich. A question is: did this family have Thames Valley roots?       The background pattern, by the great Victorian designer William Morris, is from the William Morris Gallery.