Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/628

604 WHITE WHITEFIELD WHITE, William, an American bishop, born in Philadelphia, April 6, 1748, died there, July 17, 1836. He graduated at the college of Phila- delphia in 1765, studied theology, was ordained deacon in England in 1770 and priest in 1772, and became assistant minister and afterward rector of Christ church and St. Peter's church, Philadelphia. In 1777 he was elected chaplain to congress. In 1786 he was elected bishop of Pennsylvania, and was consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury, Feb. 4, 1787. He presided over the convention held in 1789 for the organization of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States, and wrote the con- stitution of the church. With Bishop Sea- bury he had the chief part in revising the " Book of Common Prayer." He wrote "Me- moirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church," " Comparative Views of the Controversy be- tween the Calvinists and Arminians," " Com- mentary on the Ordination Services," and " Lectures on the Catechism." His life was written by Dr. B. Wilson (Philadelphia, 1889). WHITE ANT. See TERMITES. WHITEBilT (clupea alba, Yarr.), a small fish of the herring family, in great repute with London epicures. It has teeth on the palate and pterygoid bones, on the vomer, and on the tongue, for which reason Valenciennes estab- lished for it the genus rogenia ; the scales are very soft, Small, and thin. It is from 8 to 6 in. long, according to age, pale ashy green above, sides and lower parts unspotted white at all seasons. It ascends the Thames to de- Whitebait posit its spawn in the spring; the fishery be- gins in April and continues to September, and is prosecuted by means of nets; the fish are caught in abundance at every flood tide. Their food seems to consist of minute crusta- ceans. Every year there is a ministerial white- bait dinner at Greenwich, just before the pro- rogation of parliament. WHITE BEAR. See BEAR. WHITE BRETHREN. See BRETHREN, WHITE. WUITEFIELD, George, an English clergyman, born in Gloucester, Dec. 16, 1714, died in Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 30, 1770. He was the orphan of an innkeeper, and was educa- ted first at a grammar school. While assisting his mother about the inn, he composed ser- mons, and fasted twice a week for 36 hours together. At the age of 18 he entered Pem- broke college, Oxford, as a servitor. There he became intimate with Charles Wesley, was an enthusiastic member of the club in which the denomination of Methodists took its rise, and cultivated extreme habits of asceticism. The bishop of Gloucester ordained him dea- con, June 20, 1736, and the next Sunday he preached with such extraordinary effect that a complaint was made to the bishop that he had driven 15 persons mad. Returning to Oxford, he took his degree of B. A., and in 1737 went to London to preach at the tower chapel. He afterward filled for a few months a curacy in Hampshire, and in December, 1737, was in- duced by letters from John Wesley in Georgia to embark for America. In September, 1738, he returned to England to collect funds for a proposed orphan asylum near Savannah. Soon after he reached home he and Wesley entered in earnest upon the missionary career from which the origin of Methodism is dated. On Feb. 17, 1739, Whitefield set the example of preaching in the open air in a field near Bris- tol. From this time he travelled continually, preaching to enormous crowds with marvellous results. In 1739 he went back to his orphan house in Georgia. He afterward visited New England, preached to 20,000 persons on Bos- ton common, and in January, 1741, returned to England. He disagreed with Wesley on pre- destination, and the Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists have ever since remained distinct bodies. (See METHODISM, vol. xi., p. 463.) In 1744 he made a third voyage to America, landing at York, Me. He met at first with great opposition in New England, Harvard college issuing a "testimony" against him, and many of the clergy being equally hostile. Before he set out for Georgia, however, he had converted 20 pastors. In 1748 ho went to the Bermudas for his health, and thence re- turned to England. After successful tours in Ireland and Scotland, he was again in Georgia and South Carolina in 1751-'2, and in 1754 made a fifth voyage thither, accompanied by a number of children for his orphan house. His tour extended from Georgia to New Hampshire, and he spoke of it as the most important of all his expeditions. He returned to London in May, 1755, and soon after again visited Scotland and Ireland. In Dublin he was assaulted by a mob, and severely wounded with stones. In 1761-'2 ill health obliged him to desist in a measure from outdoor preaching, and he visited Holland. He made his sixth American tour in 1763-'5. His last sojourn in England, 1765- '9, was of incalculable advantage to Metho- dism. He consecrated new chapels provided by the countess of Huntingdon, greatly pro- moted the success of her training college at Travecca, influenced his associates to counsel with the Wesleyan branch of the revival move- ment, and strove to bring about a peaceful reconciliation of the Calvinistic and Arminian elements. In September, 1769, he started on his seventh American tour. He preached for two hours at Exeter, N. H., the day before his death, and on his arrival at Newburyport the same evening addressed the crowd that came to meet him. He died of asthma, and was bur- ied beneath the pulpit of the Federal street