Bulstrode, the son of Sir James Whitelocke, one of the judges of the Common Pleas, was born in 1605. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and at St John's College, Oxford, where Laud was then president. From him he received much kindness, in return for which he refused to draw up the charges against Laud when desired to do so by the Long Parliament. On leaving the university, he entered the Middle Temple, and White Sea in 1640 he sat in the Long Parliament as member for Great Marlow. He may be considered as a type of the large class of waverers whose uncertain conduct in the great events of the reign of Charles, prolonged the civil strife, and perplexes the historian who attempts to trace the motives of their actions. Thus he acted as chairman of the committee for impeaching Strafford; on the militia question he steered a middle course, maintaining that the power of raising them lay neither in the king nor in the parliament, but in both jointly. He was one of the commissioners appointed to treat at Oxford; but was also a member of the Assembly of Divines, where, however, he opposed the claims to a jus divinum put forth by the more extravagant of the Presbyterians. In the second treaty at Oxford, he was so anxious for peace, that he made secret proposals to the king, the discovery of which exposed him to some danger. He opposed the self-denying ordinance, yet with characteristic vacillation he informed Cromwell of Essex's designs against him. When the independent party began to adopt more violent measures, Whitelocke was more decided in espousing the king's cause as the only means of retaining a vestige of the old constitution. He refused to serve on the committee for accusing Charles, and in the House boldly condemned what he called "that bad business." On the king's execution, he seems to have looked to Cromwell as the only person able to govern the country; yet, as he had no other title to his dignity than force, he longed for some legally constituted authority. Thus, while he became one of the commissioners of the Great Seal, he also proposed to make terms with Charles II. or his brother, and was actually hardy enough to recommend Cromwell to do so. He went as ambassador from the Commonwealth to Sweden; and though he was not nominated to Cromwell's first parliament, he sat in the second, and was for a short time speaker in the third. He was mean enough to become one of Cromwell's lords, and was one of those who offered him the crown; yet he was constantly offending him by protesting against his arbitrary and tyrannical proceedings. He took also a prominent share in the proceedings of the shifting governments which followed the death of Cromwell, and though he was so unskilled in reading the signs of the times as to have joined an engagement to renounce all allegiance to the house of Stuart, he soon after changed his purpose, and is said to have wished to carry the great seal to Breda. After the Restoration, his name was, with some difficulty, placed in the Act of Oblivion, and his political life being over, he retired to his country seat in Wilts, where he died in 1676. During his retirement, he wrote his valuable Memorials of the English affairs from the beginning of the Reign of Charles I. to the happy Restoration of Charles II.; An Account of the Swedish Embassy in 1653-4; and Memorials of the English affairs from the supposed Expedition of Brute to the end of James I.'s Reign; all of which were published posthumously.

WHITE SEA. See Russia.