Whitehouse was born in New York City, the son of James Whitehouse and Eliza Higgs Norman. Whitehouse was described as a "thorough aristocrat by birth and training and accustomed to every luxury." He graduated from Columbia University in 1821, and from the General Theological Seminary in 1824. Whitehouse was ordained deacon in 1824, and was ordained priest in 1827.
Career
After his ordination as priest, he became rector of Christ Church in Reading, Pennsylvania. Two years later, he moved to become rector of St. Luke's Church in Rochester, New York, during which time he married his wife. He remained there for fifteen years before moving to New York in 1844 to become rector of St. Thomas Church.
Whitehouse was elected coadjutor Bishop of Illinois in 1851. He was the 55th bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated by Bishops Thomas Church Brownell, Alfred Lee, and Manton Eastburn. Upon the death of Bishop Philander Chase, Whitehouse became bishop, but refused to take up his seat for nine years, until his salary demands were met. The diocesan convention in 1860 charged him with dereliction of duty and generally condemned him. During the American Civil War, Whitehouse displayed decidedly pro-Southern sympathies, further alienating his Illinois flock. Whitehouse identified with high church Anglicanism, and in 1868 he wrote of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Several of his clergy, led by Charles Edward Cheney, denounced the Anglo-Catholic idea, accusing Whitehouse of "unprotestantizing this Protestant Episcopal Church, corrupting her doctrine, debasing her worship, and over-turning her long-established rites, ceremonies, and usages." Whitehouse had his revenge when, on hearing of Cheney's unauthorized omissions of certain liturgical phrases, he attempted to have Cheney deposed, and by 1871, he was successful in having Cheney suspended from the ministry. Cheney later became one of the original clergymen of the Reformed Episcopal Church.
On August 8, 1835, Whitehouse married Evelina Harriet Bruen. Together, they were the parents of five sons and one daughter. They choose to give middle names to some of their children, specifically Meredyth, Cope, and FitzHugh, which were surnames of women who had married into the Whitehouse family prior to 1800. Their children were:
Frederic Cope Whitehouse, also an attorney, but he engaged so ardently in his avocations of archaeology and Egyptology that his obituary in The New York Times referred to him as “the well-known Egyptologist.” He did not marry.
William FitzHugh Whitehouse, yet another attorney who married Frances Sheldon, the niece of William B. Ogden, the First Mayor of Chicago.
Louisa Bruen Whitehouse, who married Edwin Bernon Sheldon, brother of Frances Sheldon, the wife of William FitzHugh Whitehouse.
Francis Meredyth Whitehouse, the architect who married Mary Armour.
Through his son William, he was the grandfather of Ambassador Sheldon Whitehouse, who was married to Mary Crocker Alexander in 1920, great-grandson was Ambassador Charles S. Whitehouse. His great-great-grandson, Sheldon Whitehouse, is a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island.
Legacy
In 1934, his son Francis, along with other members of the family, donated a "missionary window" at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in memory of his father. The windows, designed by Wilbur Herbert Burnham, were dedicated by Bishop William T. Manning.
