Issue #1

Page 9  

‘Heritage’
Lichfield Mercury
Graphic House, 17 Bird Street
Lichfield, Staffs
Eng, WS136PX

Att: Ms. Victoria Hoe:

May I take this opportunity to thank you and your newspaper for the fine, kind, and mostly accurate article on Edward Wightman, which appeared in your July 2, 1998 edition.

Allow me to exercise a little editorial comment, some corrections and additions to the story:

Edward was descended from the famous de Beaumont family, being the I, II, III and IV Earls of Leicester, coming with William I from Normandy in the 11th century.

Robert de Beaumont, the 3rd Earl of Leicester, was probably the first man to take the "Wightman" name. He was given the French name "Blanchmains," deriving from his "exceeding fine white hands," the result of contracting leprosy while accompanying Richard II on a crusade to the Holy Land. The name was anglicized to "Whytmains", then to "Wightman" which has been the most common spelling since at least the twelfth century. It is also recorded that he bore the Sword of State at the coronation of Richard I and was "Steward of England" when Richard was out of the country.

We have identified at least 20,000 descendants of Edward in the United States, the family emigrating in 1653 and joining with the famous American Protestant reformer, Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island.

With regards to the charges of "heresy" brought against Edward:

The "Great Bible" taken by George Wightman to America in 1653 may well have been purchased by Edward (it was apparently printed in 1587 in London), and was probably the source of his so-called "heretical" views.

This Bible has been handed down father-to-son for many generations. It is now in the possession of George Wightman XIII.

A study of the chronicles, historical libraries of the Friary in Lichfield, in Leicester, and some books in private collections, strongly indicate that the customary stories of his heresies, trial and execution, contain many errors.

It was said at his trial that he proclaimed himself "to be that person of the Holy Ghost." In all likelihood, he was explaining that he believed that the Holy Writ taught that the Holy Ghost was a separate personage from the Father and from Christ, and that Christ was the very Son of The Father.

Additionally, he was reported to have claimed that he was that "great prophet," who was to be raised up in the latter days. Probably he referred to the prophet, but said that he was looking forward to his coming.

From the research I was able to do at the Lichfield Friary and the Leicester Public Library, it is quite clear that Edward was an unwilling pawn in the power struggle between James I and the Roundheads. I am enclosing copies of a few pages from chronicled history to confirm this. In short, he was arrested on "trumped up charges" and sentenced to die by a "stacked" tribunal, especially selected to deliver a guilty verdict and "burn him."

I hope you will be able to add this letter to your own archives for the benefit of future researchers.

Sincerely yours,

______________________
Ronald D. Wightman

RDW:hsf

PS. It was my fault that the article stated that our own home is "only" 200 years old. Our home is about 35 years old, but my intention was to say that our "city" is less than 200 years old. When the Mormon pioneers settled the area now known as the State of Utah and the surrounding territory in 1847, it was desolate wilderness devoid of vegetation and peopled only by an occasional band of roving Indians.