WHITE, Thomas (c.1630-70), of The Liberty, Wells, Som.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1659
1660

Family and Education

b. c.1630, 1st s. of Daniel White of West Lavington, Wilts. by his 1st w. Jane. educ. I. Temple 1647, called 1654. m. 4 Mar. 1656, Jane, da. of William Bull of Shapwick, Som., 1s. 3da. suc. fa. 1659.1

Offices Held

Recorder, Wells c.1656-62; j.p. Som. July 1660-2, commr. for sewers, Aug., Dec. 1660, assessment Aug. 1660-3.2

Biography

White was possibly the grandson of Daniel White who died in 1602/3, leaving a messuage in Wells and other property to his son Daniel (then a minor), and a kinsman of Edmund Whyte who was removed from the Wells corporation about the same time on the ground of non-residence. White himself was technically a ‘stranger’ when he was appointed recorder, but he represented the city in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament and again in the Convention. Marked on Lord Wharton’s list as an Anglican, he left no trace on parliamentary records in 1660, but he may have voted with the Presbyterian Opposition. In 1662 he was dismissed as recorder by the commissioners for corporations, and removed from the county bench. He was buried in the cathedral on 25 Aug. 1670 as ‘Mr Thomas White gent. of this liberty’. His will mentions houses and other property in and around Wells, and appoints his ‘dear friends’ Henry Pollexfen and Henry Bull as two of the overseers. His son, as he desired, was ‘bred a scholar, and to the profession of the common law’, but no other member of the family entered Parliament, and about 1721 the White property in Wells was sold.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. A. J. Jewers, Wells. Cath. 49; West Lavington reg.; PCC 348 Pell.
  • 2. T. Serel, Wells Roll of Recorders (ms bk. in town clerk’s office); Q. Sess. Recs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxiv), p. xx.
  • 3. PCC 5 Bolein, 168 Penn; Serel; Wells Cath. reg.; I. Temple reg.