Trade Directories of the C18th & C19th are an invaluable source of information about the local community. They contain information about the history and geography of an area, but it is the wealth of detail concerning the people who feature in the pages which offers so much to the genealogist or local historian.  By no means comprehensive, the Directories set out to record the "principal inhabitants" of a community, those in trade, or those affluent enough to be recognised as the important people in the community, such as the gentry or clerics, professionals etc. The ordinary men and women in a community rarely figure in these Directories .

The entries relating to Whittington have been transcribed as they appear, except for the column formatting, eg abbreviations and punctuation.