Family and Education

b. 1531/32, 1st s. of Thomas White II, and bro. of Thomas IV. educ. I. Temple, adm. 20 May 1549. m. 30 May 1554, Bridget, da. and event. coh. of Henry Bradshaw of Halton, Bucks., 3da. suc. fa. 2 Nov. 1566.1

Offices Held

Jt. constable, Farnham castle, Surr. 20 Jan. 1545-d.2

Biography

The Henry White who sat for Downton in 1555 was unquestionably either the brother3 or the son of the treasurer of the bishopric of Winchester to which that borough belonged. What is less clear is which of the two did so and whether he or his namesake had previously sat for Reigate. That it was the younger man (whose particulars appear above) who sat for Downton may be inferred from the fact that his younger brother Thomas IV sat for the borough in 1555 and the father would hardly have nominated him had the elder brother not been provided with a seat. The question which of the two namesakes had been returned for Reigate 18 months earlier is slightly complicated by the appearance of their name twice on the list of Members of that Parliament, where besides being entered against Reigate it originally stood against the neighbouring borough of Gatton but was afterwards crossed out and replaced by Thomas Gatacre’s. Although this is probably to be regarded as a copyist’s error, it could mean that the Henry White in question had been returned for both boroughs and had chosen Reigate. There would be no difficulty in explaining the younger Henry White’s return at Gatton, since the patron there, Lady Copley, had a disposition to choose her son’s contemporaries. If only the seat at Reigate is in question, it may be thought that (Sir) Thomas White II would have approached the patron, Lord William Howard, more readily and with better prospect on his son’s behalf than on his brother’s, especially as he was then setting up the younger Henry in preparation for his marriage. On these, admittedly slight, grounds it is concluded that this Henry White sat in successive Parliaments for Reigate and Downton. Of his role in them nothing is known save that he is not to be found on the list of those who in December 1555 voted against one of the government’s bills.4

Like his uncle, the younger Henry White was specially admitted to the Inner Temple and thus makes no further appearance in its records, but from the settlement which preceded his marriage to a daughter of Henry Bradshaw, chief baron of the Exchequer and a member of the inn, it is clear that he was adequately set up, with an immediate provision of lands worth £13 a year and the prospect of receiving nearly as much again on the death of his father and mother. Since his wife was soon to add to the joint resources her share of the lands in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire inherited by her brother Benedict, whose death had followed quickly upon his father’s, White had less reason to lament his own father’s decision to divide the bulk of his lands among his numerous progeny. He may hve settled in London, where his maternal uncle Sir John White^† became sheriff in 1556 and mayor in 1563. It was as of London, gentleman, that he made his will on 5 Feb. 1570, asking to be buried in St. Martin’s Ludgate. He left £30 as a marriage portion to each of his three daughters and the residue of his goods to two of his goods to two of hisbrothers, both named Stephen, whom he named executors, with Sir John White as overseer. He died two days after making the will, which was prove on 8 Jan. 1571. His widow married Thomas Fermor.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. R. Johnson

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/145/9.Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 81-82; E150/1005/6; C142/157/91; PCC 6 Holney.
• 2. Manning and Bray, Surr. iii. 136.
• 3. Cal. I.T. Recs. i. 16-144 passim; PCC 25 Populwell, 4 Stonard.
• 4. C/193/23/1, f.3v.
• 5. CPR 1554-5, p.14; PCC 6 Holney; C142/157/91 where White’s date of death is given in error as 7 Feb. 13 Eliz. (1571).