He was a prominent land owner and Lawyer. His parents were Jesse Whitesell of Germany and Sarah Wright of Kentucky. He married Clara Catherine Hunter February 22 1893. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Tennessee in 1916. He and Clara had the following children:
Jessie L Whitesell
1893 – 1960

Hunter Whitesell
1896 – 1981

Lillian Byrd Whitesell
1898 – 1991

Lewis Whitesell
1900 – 1902

Clara Catherine "Cot" Whitesell
1904 – 1984

Excerpt from "The Goodspeed Biographies of Obion County, Tennessee:"
Robert P. Whitesell, a member of the Union City bar, is a native of Fulton County, Kentucky, born May 11, 1860, son of Jesse and Elizabeth (Wright) Whitesell, of German descent. His father was born in North Carolina in 1822, and his mother in Davidon County, TN in 1838. His grandfather, Peter (Weitzel) Whitesell was a native German, and came to America in an early part of this century. He settled in Lincoln County, TN and in 1828 removed to Weakley County (now Obion County), and died there about 1860. Our subject's father is a farmer and capitalist, and now resides in Fulton County, Kentucky. Robert P. Whitesell is the eldest of four children and was educated in the schools of Fulton County, KY, and Clinton College. He entered the latter in 1875 and graduated in 1879. He then took a special course in the University of Virginia, and subsequently attended the law department of Vanderbilt University, from which he graduated in 1883. In the fall of the same year he was admitted ot the Union City bar and formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, A. J. Harpole, and they together have a large clientage. He is a Democrat in politicws and his first presidential vote was cast for Cleveland. He is a Knight of Pythias.