WHITE, John (d.1597), of the Inner Temple, London.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

s. of Thomas White of Downton, Wilts. by Anne, da. of Stephen Kirton, alderman of London. educ. I. Temple 1580. m. Mary, da. of George Turberville, of Bere Regis, Dorset, d.s.p. suc. fa. 15581.

Offices Held

Biography

White was still occupying chambers in the Inner Temple at the time of his death, but details of any legal career are lacking. He may have been nominated for a parliamentary seat at Clitheroe in 1589 through acting for the duchy of Lancaster in some legal capacity. If he was the John White who wrote from London to a John Reskymer in May 1585, he was financially involved in the Cornish tin mines, in which case his operations were unremunerative, for at his death in 1597 White left legacies amounting to less than £200. The will mentions neither wife nor children, but his mother had remarried into the Dutton family of Sherborne, Gloucestershire, and White clearly took an interest in his halt-brothers and sisters, especially ‘my brother William Dutton’, who received his best gelding, or £10, for acting as executor of the will. The only member of his own family to whom White made a bequest was ‘my aunt Oxenbrigge’—his fathers sister Barbara—who was to receive £10. His charitable bequests extended to the poor of the London parish of St. Andrew Undershaft, who were to receive £3, and to the poor of South Warnborough, the parish of his birth, who were to benefit from the investment of £30, as well as receiving £3 at the time of his death. White died between 23 July 1597, when the will was made, and 22 Oct., when it was proved.2

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 81-2; PCC 91 Cobham; VCH Hants, v. 93.
  • 2. VCH Hants, iii. 379; PCC 4 Stonard, 91 Cobham; CSP Dom. Add. 1580-1625, p. 143; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 139; Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 54.