WHITE, John II, of Dartmouth, Devon.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education


Offices Held

Poss. mayor, Dartmouth Mich. 1434-5.1

Biography

Apart from his only election to Parliament, nothing is known about White until, in the spring of 1418, he joined with other mariners of Dartmouth in an attack off Portland Bill on the Seynt Mary of Gascony, which they sailed to Weymouth for a division of the cargo, said to be worth £225. Although they failed to appear before the King’s Council to answer for this incident, said to be in breach of the truce, they did eventually satisfy the Flemish merchants who had freighted the vessel, doing so to the full extent of their claim. In 1429 White was named in a commission sent to Sir Thomas Carew and John Hawley II*, among others, requiring the arrest of certain Devonshire men, but on this occasion his alleged crime is not cited. It was probably the same John White who in the previous year had been associated with John Hill of Spaxton as part-owner of lands in Dittisham, not far from Dartmouth, and who witnessed a conveyance in Dartmouth itself in 1430. Indeed, the former MP may well have been he who subsequently served a term as mayor. However, in view of his advanced age it is unlikely that he was the John White acting as master of the Antony (owned by Thomas Gille of Dartmouth), when, in 1436, she was requisitioned for royal service.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. H.R. Watkin, Dartmouth, 185.
  • 2. CPR, 1416-22, p. 202; 1422-9, p. 550; 1429-36, p. 509; CCR, 1413-19, p. 514; Watkin, 111.