White, John

White, John,

1575–1648, English colonizer. An Anglican priest of moderate Puritan belief, White wished to establish a colony for Puritans. He helped form (1628) the New England Company, which later became (1629) the Massachusetts Bay Company, but he himself never went to America.

Bibliography

See biography by F. Rose-Troup (1930).

White, John,

fl. 1585–93, artist, cartographer, and Virginia pioneer, b. probably in England. In 1585 he was commissioned to go with the expedition to Roanoke IslandRoanoke Island,
12 mi (19 km) long and 3 mi (4.8 km) wide, NE N.C., off the Atlantic coast between Croatan (W) and Roanoke (E) sounds in the Outer Banks. Manteo is the chief town, and tourism and fishing are the principal industries.
..... Click the link for more information.  to depict life in the New World. His paintings provide some of the earliest and most valuable source materials on the natural history of the North American continent. It is believed, though by no means proved, that he is the same John White whom Sir Walter Raleigh appointed governor of the second Roanoke colony in 1587.

White, John

(fl. 1585–93) painter, cartographer, colonial governor; born in England. Nothing is known of him until he sailed with Sir Martin Frobisher's second expedition to Baffin Island (1577). In 1585 he was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) as artist and mapmaker; he came back with a set of watercolors that remain the primary source for the study of the flora, fauna, and indigenous inhabitants of this part of North America. It is now generally accepted that he was the John White sent as governor on the second expedition to Roanoke (1587); it was this White's daughter who gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first British child born in the New World. After going to England for more support (1587), he returned (1590) to find the colony had totally vanished. He sailed back and reportedly lived in Newtowne in Kylmore, Ireland, by 1593.