The Borthwick baronetcy, of Whitburgh in Humbie in the County of Haddington, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 21 July 1908 for Thomas Borthwick, a meat importer. He was Chairman of Thomas Borthwick & Sons, colonial merchants. In June 1912 he was nominated for a peerage, but died in July of the same year, before the patent had passed the Great Seal; on 10 December 1912 his eldest son Thomas Borthwick, the 2nd Baronet, was created Baron Whitburgh, of Whitburgh in the County of Midlothian, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, in February 1913 the 1st Baronet's widow Letitia Mary was given Royal licence to use the style of Baroness Whitburgh.
The peerage became extinct on Lord Whitburgh's death in 1967, while he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew, the 3rd Baronet. He was the only son of the Hon. James Alexander Borthwick, second son of the 1st Baronet. The 4th Baronet Sir Antony Thomas Borthwick succeeded his father in 2002.
The heir apparent is the present holder's son Matthew Thomas Thurston Borthwick (born 1968).