Whitfield family of the United States

The Whitfield Family

Ethnicity	Norman
Current region	United States
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Members	William Whitfield I William Whitfield II William Whitfield III Henry L. Whitfield James B. Whitfield James Whitfield Nathan Bryan Whitfield
Connected families	Herring family, Bryan family, Wooten family
Distinctions	Planters (American gentry)
Name origin and meaning	Hoit-Feldt, Norse for "white field"

The Whitfield family is a prominent American political family of the Southern states, and formed the American branch of the British Whitfield family - having descent from the , particularly the Earls of Kilmorey. In early days of Colonial America, the family emigrated to Virginia in the seventeenth century, particularly, Nansemond County, Virginia from Lancashire, England.

The family produced many United States Congressmen, Senators and Governors, as well as businessmen and military generals active from the American Revolutionary War and past the American Civil War, with significance during the antebellum period. The family is most connected to the U.S. State of North Carolina, but had extended land ownership, slave trade, business activities and public service to Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Florida.

Born in Lancashire, England, patriarch William Whitfield I moved to Nansemond County, Virginia. In 1770, Whitfield, along with his wife, were killed by the Tuscarora Indians. His son, William Whitfield II purchased Seven Springs, North Carolina from Buckskin Williams, the father of Benjamin Williams, the Governor of North Carolina. During the American Revolutionary War, he served as a Captain of the 6th Virginia Regiment, along with his sons, Needham Whitfield and William Whitfield III who were in the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge during the revolutionary war. The former was a clerk to Colonel Richard Caswell and the other a private in the Light Horse Cavalry, taking prisoner General McDonald, who was the Commander of the Tories.

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