Born at Millbank Plantation on the Meherrin River in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, Francis was the next-to-youngest of the nine sons of Irish immigrant Fortescue Whittle and Mary Ann Davies of Norfolk, Virginia, Francis Whittle attended the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia and after teaching for a while, entered and graduated from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1847. The following year, on May 15, 1848, he married Emily Cary Fairfax, daughter of Wilson Cary Fairfax and Lucy A. Griffith. They had eight children, including three daughters and one son who predeceased their parents: Mary Anne at Petersburg, Virginia in 1862, Julia at her uncle's historic house Eldon in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, Jane Eliza at Hopkinsville, Kentucky circa 1872 and Llewellyn Fairfax Whittle circa 1880. Surviving children included Lucy Tucker Whittle, Francis McNeece Whittle Jr., Emily Clary Whittle and Fortescue Whittle, II.
Ministry
Bishop William Meade ordained Whittle as a deacon in St. Paul's Church in Alexandria, Virginia not long after his graduation from the seminary, and on October 8, 1848 ordained him as a Priest in St. John's Episcopal Church, Charleston, West Virginia. Whittle served in that parish another year, before being called to St. James Church, Wortham Parish in Goochland County, Virginia where he served from 1849-52. Whittle then served in the Shenandoah Valley at Grace Church in Berryville, Virginia from 1857 to 1858. He then moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he served at St. Paul's Church through the American Civil War, although his family returned to Virginia. In 1867, Whittle received a theological degree from the Theological College of Ohio, and in 1873 a L.L.D. from the College of William and Mary.
Episcopacy
Not long after the General Convention readmitted the Confederate bishops after the American Civil War, the clergy and laity of Virginia and West Virginia met in May 1867, and selected Whittle as Bishop John Johns' assistant. He was consecrated on April 30, 1868. Recovery from the devastation of the war preoccupied Bishop Whittle's episcopate, both as Bishop Johns' assistant and as his successor beginning April 4, 1876. With the help of his wife Emily, Whittle established various charitable institutions in Richmond. In 1875, he established the Protestant Church Home, and remained on its board of directors until his death in 1902 < Emily Whittle also established the first Richmond chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association. The Diocese of Virginia split twice during Whittle's episcopate. The Diocese of West Virginia was created in 1877 to correspond to the new state created during the Civil War. The Diocese of Southern Virginia was created in 1892, with the understanding that a further division would soon occur. In 1897, Robert Atkinson Gibson was elected as bishop Whittle's Coadjutor with right of succession and soon consecrated. Although Bishop Whittle was known for his personal rectitude and lack of ostentation, by the end of his episcopate, Jim Crow laws had restricted the participation of African-American Episcopalians within the diocese, and African-American Virginians within the Commonwealth. While Bishop Whittle in 1878 had established the Bishop Payne Divinity School in Petersburg, Virginia to prepare African-Americans for ordination and ordained George Freeman Bragg as deacon in 1887 and as priest the following year, in 1899 the diocesan council approved restricting Bragg's voice to the Convocation of the Missionary Jurisdiction. Bishop Whittle also was active in sending missionaries to Brazil, and one of his last acts was signing a petition of clergymen opposing the war in the Philippines. However, he died disappointed that he had failed to stem the Oxford Movement within the Anglican Communion and within his diocese.
