Hon. Dr. John White

Owner of Whitehall Pen in St Elizabeth.

1. Dr John White married Miss Margaret Tatham Dracott, in St Elizabeth, 11/10/1770.

2. Baptism at St Elizabeth, 09/06/1773, of Anne (born 23/09/1771) and John (born 08/05/1773), children of Dr John White and Margaret his wife. Baptism as St Elizabeth, 08/01/1776, James (born 08/06/1775), son of Dr John White and Margaret his wife.

3. His son James married Catherine Ann, daughter of John William Spencer Griffith, at Long Hill, St Elizabeth. He was buried at Whitehall, October 1814, James White Esquire aged 39 years and his infant son John James White was buried at Long Hill 03/04/1815. "[Death] At Whitehall, in St Elizabeth's, Jamaica, on the 18 Nov. Jas. White, Esq. son of the Hon. John White, Custos of that parish, and nephew of Mr James White, of Liverpool." Catherine Ann remarried, to John Erskine Douglas, Rear Admiral of the Blue, 21/01/1818.

4. Burial at Whitehall, Dr. John White, aged about 78 years, 25/05/1821.

5. Will of Hon. John White of St Elizabeth Jamaica [made in 1819] proved 04/01/1822. He left his pen or plantation called Whitehall in trust to pay the profits to his daughter Ann Brown [sic], wife of Honourable John Brown [sic] of Great Britain, for life and then to his grandchildren. He left £1000 to Mary White widow of his late son William White, and ordered the purchase of a mulatto girl, the daughter of his late son James White, living on Barton Isles estate in St Elizabeth. He freed two other enslaved people: a mulatto man Alexander McLachlan and Thomas Browne. In a codicil of 1821 he left £8000 for the purchase of an estate in the United Kingdom for his daughter Ann Browne and her children, and revoked the manumissions of Alexander McLachlan and Thomas Browne (instead instructing that they work three days a week on their now account), and made that of Eliza White conditional on her behaviour for two years.

6. According to the death notice of John's son James in the Liverpool Mercury, James was the nephew of "Mr James White of Liverpool". This may be the James White of Liverpool (q.v.) who owned Green Hill and Green Vale estates in St Elizabeth, but the will of this James White makes no mention of a brother John. Nor does the will of Andrew White, James White of Liverpool's brother, make any mention of a brother John, although a John White was attorney to Andrew White on Andrew's estate of Oxford in St Elizabeth from at least 1797 to 1799.

7. His daughter Ann White, spinster, married Hon. John Browne, Major, 13th Regt of Light Dragoons, in St Elizabeth, 20/09/1797. He (1770-1855) was the second son of the 1st Baron Kilmaine.

8. Dr John White was one of the trustees of the will of Rev. Thomas Warren of Lacovia estate. The case of Henckell v Davy revealed that following the death of John White, one of his executors James Daly had his personal estate assessed at £37,702 15s 7d.

1. St Elizabeth, Jamaica, parish register (familysearch.org - unindexed Baptisms, marriages, burials 1705-1820).

2. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

3. St.Elizabeth, Jamaica, parish register (familysearch.org - unindexed Baptisms, marriages, burials 1705-1820); Liverpool Mercury 13/01/1815; William R. O'Byrne, A Naval Biographical Dictionary (1849) p. 299.

4. St.Elizabeth, Jamaica, parish register (familysearch.org - unindexed Baptisms, marriages, burials 1820-1825, Vol. 2.

5. PROB 11/1652/54.

6. PROB 11/1607/257; PROB 11/1635/258; see estate information for Oxford in St Elizabeth.

7. St.Elizabeth, Jamaica, parish register (familysearch.org - unindexed Baptisms, marriages, burials 1705-1820); Bernard Burke, A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage of the British Empire (1869), 31st ed., p. 639.

8. Edward Moore, Reports of Cases Heard and Determined by the Judicial Committee and the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (1837) vol. 1 p. 53.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with compiling this entry.