Joseph Whitaker, Esq., FZS (12 July 1850 – 27 May 1932) was an English naturalist who lived for most of his life at Rainworth, in Nottinghamshire, England.

The first, Ethel Mary, died in infancy, while the fifth,[1] Vera, married Sir Harold Bowden, 2nd Baronet, in 1908, but the marriage was short lived and they divorced in 1919.

[5][6] Whitaker was a naturalist, and his home at Rainworth Lodge looked more like a museum, as it was full of cases of stuffed birds and other exhibits of natural life.

He erected a 'Bird Stone' to commemorate the event in Thieves Wood, to the west of Rainworth, but this was vandalised in the 1980s, and was replaced by a modern artifice.

[7] The window has three lights, showing St Francis and a number of birds, all of which are mentioned in White's book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.

[6] His collection included china, bric-a-brac, books and prints, and among the curios he amassed was possibly the first known circular saw, which was manufactured at the Barringer, Manners and Wallis factory in Rock Valley, Mansfield.