Benjamin White, who during the latter half of the eighteenth century was the principal London publisher of books on natural history; and who to the edition of 1802 prefixed a meagre memoir of Gilbert White. The historian of Selborne closed his serene and peaceful life in June, 1793. He was a cheerful and social man, a good teller of a story, and a bachelor. His charming "Natural History of Selborne" is one of the classics of the language, and shows what can be effected in the most contracted sphere by a genial, sympathetic, and persistent observation of nature. "The Antiquities of Selborne," divorced in later editions from the "Natural History," is also a very pleasing performance. In 1795 Mr. Aikin published a "Naturalist's Calendar," compiled from the daily register which White had kept for a quarter of a century. In 1802 the "Natural History" and "Calendar" were published with Markwick's notes, the "Antiquities" being omitted. These reappeared, with the addition of some poems of White's, in the edition of 1813, and are also given in one of the best of the later editions of his works, that of 1836, by the late Mr. Edward Turner Bennett, secretary to the Zoological Society. Mr. Bennett had collected materials for a work, which has never been published, on Selborne and its vicinity. In Blackwood's Magazine for September, 1840, there is a pleasant paper on the modern aspects of Gilbert White's home and district—"A Visit to Selborne."—F. E.
WHITE, Henry Kirke, was born at Nottingham on 21st March, 1785. From a boy he was very fond of reading, and his progress at school was extraordinary. But he was taken from school at a very early period, and made to carry baskets for his father, who was a butcher. Still he went on in various spheres of self-improvement. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to the stocking-loom, and remained at this uncongenial occupation for a year. Then he was sent to a lawyer's office; but he still employed his leisure hours in a course of extensive reading and mental discipline. His early attempts at composition were published in the Monthly Preceptor and Monthly Mirror, and gave token of an unusual precocity. In 1803, encouraged by Hill and Capel Lofft, he published his first volume of poems; but the volume was coldly received. Southey, however, took some kindly notice of the young aspirant, and gave him good advice. At this time he devoted himself to study so resolutely as to sow the seeds of disease in his constitution. His long cherished desire to enter the university was at length gratified, through the patronage of Mr. Simeon, and he became a sizar in St. John's in October, 1815. His industry was incessant; he carried the first place in every examination, and every one set him down to be a senior wrangler. But his constitution was undermined, his nerves were unstrung, and his nights were restless—the prelude to delirium, stupor, and death. He died October 19, 1806. His literary "Remains" were published by Southey, and have long been popular. His muse was quiet and pensive, reposing on the beauty of nature, and sanctified by the power of a living faith. He was of a most amiable character; and though he was ambitious, his aims were noble. He longed to preach the truth which had given freedom and inspiration to his own soul. His "Star of Bethlehem" will only die with the language.—J. E.
WHITE, James, dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was born near Edinburgh about 1804. He entered the English church, and early attracted the notice of Lord Brougham, to whom in 1832 he dedicated a poem, "The Village Poor-house, by a Country Curate." Soon afterwards he was appointed vicar of Loxley in Warwickshire; but surrendering his living, devoted himself to literature. He was the author of the lively and clever papers, "Nights at Mess" and "Sir Frizzle Pumpkin," in Blackwood's Magazine, and contributed to other leading periodicals. Some of his plays, which included "The Earl of Gowrie," "Feudal Times," "The King of the Commons," were produced by Macready. During his later years he was chiefly known as the author of several admirable historical compendiums, "Landmarks of the History of England," of Greece, &c., and a history of France and the "Eighteen Christian Centuries." He resided at the beautiful village of Bonchurch in the Isle of Wight, where he possessed some property, and died in March, 1862.—F. E.
WHITE, John, A.M., an English divine of the puritan party, was born in Oxfordshire in 1574. Educated at Winchester school and New college, Oxford, he became, in 1606, rector of Trinity church, Dorchester. The success of the royalists in that quarter drove him to London, where he ministered in the Savoy, and succeeded Dr. Featley in the rectory of Lambeth. He afterwards returned to his former charge, and died there at the age of seventy-four. He has been styled "the Patriarch of Dorchester;" and the esteem in which he was held procured for him an honourable position in the Westminster assembly, where he sat as one of the two assessors of the prolocutor Dr. Twisse. He published works on the first three chapters of Genesis; on the profitable reading of the scriptures; and on the morality of the fourth commandment.—W. B.
WHITE, John, an English lawyer, born in Pembrokeshire in 1590; completed his classical education at Jesus' college, Oxford; studied for the bar at the Middle temple, and ultimately became a bencher of this society. His principles led him to give his professional aid to the puritans, and he was censured by the star-chamber for the zeal which he displayed in their interest, as one of the feoffees for buying in impropriations. Elected to represent Southwark in the parliament of 1640, he continued his opposition to the Anglican hierarchy, presided in the committee for inquiry into the immoralities of the clergy, and subsequently sat as one of the lay assessors in the Westminster assembly of divines. His death took place in 1645. The work which he published in justification of the rigorous proceedings of the committee above mentioned, procured for him the soubriquet of Century White; it was entitled "The First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests made and admitted into Benefices by the Prelates," &c.—W. B.
WHITE or WHYTE, John, an English prelate, born in Surrey in 1511, and educated at Oxford, was made bishop of Lincoln by Queen Mary in 1554, and three years afterwards translated to the see of Winchester. At the accession of Elizabeth he was thrown into the Tower, but obtained his release, and died in 1560. He published some Latin poems, and a sermon preached at the funeral of Queen Mary.—W. B.
WHITE, Joseph, an eminent orientalist, was born of humble parentage at Stroud in 1746. By the kindness of some friends, who were attracted by his talents, he was sent to Wadham college, Oxford, of which he became a fellow. He graduated in 1773. Oriental literature was his favourite study, and in 1775 he was chosen Laudian professor of Arabic, and delivered and published an excellent inaugural discourse. In 1778 he edited the Philoxenian Syraic version of the gospels, and was nominated one of the preachers at the Chapel royal, Whitehall. In 1781 he delivered the Bampton lecture, his theme being a "Comparative view of Christianity and Mahommedanism." The volume rose to immediate popularity, though the author's fame was at length diminished by the discovery that he had paid Badcock £500 for literary assistance, and that Dr. Parr had materially contributed to the eloquent volume.—(See Parr.) He was afterwards a prebend of Gloucester, a D.D., and a canon of Christ church. About 1791 he married, and retired to the college living of Melton, Suffolk. Here he set up a private press, and wrought at it himself, producing his "Ægyptiaca," or an edition of Abdolatiff's History of Egypt. In 1799 he published from the Clarendon press a Diatessaron, which has been several times reprinted; and in 1808 an edition of the Greek Testament, exhibiting the alterations of Griesbach, &c. In 1811 appeared his "Criseos Griesbachianæ Synopsis." He died in 1814.—J. E.
WHITE, Joseph Blanco, or, as he was called in Spain, Don Jose Maria Blanco y Crespo, was born at Seville, 11th July, 1775. His grandfather, who had emigrated to Spain in the beginning of last century, was a descendant of an Irish Roman catholic family, and his mother was a Spanish lady related to the old Andalusian nobility. Joseph was placed at the age of eight in his father's counting-house, but he had strong likings for a clerical life, which his parents at length gratified. In 1799 he entered priest's orders, and was chosen rector of his college. Other preferments were gained by him, but in a few years there came over him a great change, and he formed a decided antipathy to the profession which he had chosen in his youthful ardour. After several vicissitudes occasioned by the French invasion, he in 1810 arrived in England, where he spent his remaining years. He immediately started El Español, a monthly periodical in Spanish, which continued to be issued for above five years. When it failed in 1814, the government gave him a pension of £250; and having become a protestant, and resided for a period at Oxford as a member of Oriel college, he obtained orders in the Church of England. But he soon dropped all idea and intention of being an episcopalian minister. In 1820 he began a series of papers in the New Monthly Magazine, entitled
