Whitehaven, Harbour from the East, Cumberland, 20th century. Town and port on the coast of Cumbria, England. Historically a part of Cumberland. Whitehaven's prosperity during the 18th and 19th centuries was based on tobacco and coal. After the Acts of Union 1707 with Scotland the port of Glasgow began to take over Whitehaven's tobacco trade. By the second half of the 18th century there was a marked decline in shipping tobacco via Whitehaven which led subsequently to the creation of Glasgow's Tobacco Lords.