William Whiteley was born in Yorkshire in 1861. In the early 20th century, Whiteley was employed by James Munro & Sons Ltd, concentrating on export sales. However, he was sacked for building unauthorised relationships with somewhat questionable traders in Africa during 1908. It was after this when he set up his own business of William Whiteley & Company. However, he filed for bankruptcy in 1912.

Prohibition in America then presented an opportunity for Whiteley, who developed a relationship with mafia boss Frank Costello, who helped Whiteley smuggle his own blends of Scotch whisky into the States.

1928 was the year Whiteley formulated his most famous blend, King’s Ransom, which didn’t take long to earn a name as the most expensive Scotch in the world. In 1933 Whiteley acquired Edradour distillery in Perthshire, and this gave him a source of malt whisky for blending, and so Edradour became a staple ingredient of King’s Ransom. Another high profile blended Scotch from Whiteley was House of Lords, which was only available in export markets until 1996 due to protests from the upper house of the British parliament regarding its name.

Whiteley died in 1941, having retired three years previously. Irving Haim, an associate of Frank Costello, acquired the shares of W Whiteley & Co Ltd, and the brand remained in the Haim family until 1978. In 1982 the Pernod Ricard subsidiary S Campbell & Son Ltd acquired William Whiteley & Co Ltd. Edradour distillery, no longer bound to being the main component in Whiteley’s blend, was released as a single malt.