Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/81

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worth of that parish, to whose son William he had acted as tutor. After Wentworth's death he left Woolley, and went to Lord Yarborough at Brocklesby Park in Lincolnshire, where he acted as tutor to the baron's grandsons. In 1842 he was presented to the rectory of Little and Great Glemham in Suffolk by the Hon. Mrs. North, Lord Yarborough's sister, and on 29 Oct. 1846 he was presented by Magdalen College to the rectory of Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, which he retained until his death. He died unmarried at Cheltenham on 31 Jan. 1865, and was buried at Slimbridge, in the churchyard, near the chancel south wall.

His younger brother, John Meadows White (1799?–1863), solicitor, was born at Halesworth in 1799 or 1800, and entered into partnership with his father there. He removed to London, where he became the partner of T. Barett in Great St. Helen's Street, and rose to great eminence as a parliamentary solicitor. He was engaged in the preparation of many measures of social, legal, and ecclesiastical reform, such as the new poor law, the commutation of tithes, and the enfranchisement of copyholds. On the subject of tithes he became a great authority, and issued several treatises on tithe legislation. He was a solicitor of the ecclesiastical commission, and died at Weymouth on 19 March 1863. On 17 Sept. 1825 he married at Halesworth Anne, daughter of Robert Crabtree, an attorney of that place, and by her had a large family.

Besides publications on tithe law he was the author of: 1. ‘Some Remarks on the Statute Law of Parish Apprentices,’ Halesworth, 1829, 8vo. 2. ‘Remarks on the Poor Law Amendment Act,’ London, 1834, 8vo. 3. ‘Parochial Settlements an Obstruction to Poor Law Reform,’ London, 1835, 8vo. 4. ‘Remarks on the Copyhold Enfranchisement Act,’ London, 1841, 12mo. 5. ‘The Act for the Commutation of certain Manorial Rights in respect of Lands of Copyhold and Customary Tenure,’ London, 1841, 12mo (Gent. Mag. 1863, i. 667; Brit. Museum Addit. MS. 19168, f. 211).

[Gent. Mag. 1865, ii. 111–13; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.; Davy's Suffolk Collections in Brit. Museum Addit. MS. 19155, f. 92; Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen Coll. vii. 265–9; Cox's Recollections of Oxford, 1868, pp. 246–7.]

E. I. C.

WHITE, SAMUEL (1733–1811), schoolmaster. [See WHYTE.]

WHITE, STEPHEN (1575–1647?), Irish jesuit, born in 1575, was a native of Clonmel (Hogan, Hibernia Ignatiana, p. 229). He was educated at the Irish seminary at Salamanca, where he was a reader in philosophy. He joined the jesuits in 1596. In 1606 he became professor of scholastic theology at Ingoldstadt, and returned to Spain in 1609 (ib. p. 179), but did not live there long. John Lynch describes him as ‘doctor and emeritus professor of theology at Ingoldstadt, Dillingen, and other places in Germany; a man full of almost every kind of learning’ (Cambrensis Eversus, ii. 394). He was for a long time rector of the college at Cassel. He is chiefly remembered for his labours among Irish manuscripts preserved in German monasteries, and may be said to have opened that rich mine. He corresponded in a friendly way with Ussher, who acknowledges his courtesy and testifies to his immense knowledge, not only of Irish antiquities, but of those of all nations. He was a good Hebrew scholar.

In 1621 White transcribed at Dillingen a manuscript of Adamnan's life of St. Columba, lent to him for the purpose by the Benedictines of Reichenau, and now preserved at Schaffhausen. This is the most important of the manuscripts used by Reeves in settling the standard text. White lent his transcript to Ussher before 1639, when the latter published his great work on ecclesiastical antiquities. Ussher prints a long extract from an unpublished life of Columba which Reeves believed to have been written by White. The ‘Tertia Vita S. Brigidæ’ printed by John Colgan [q. v.] in his ‘Trias Thaumaturga’ was transcribed by White from a very old manuscript at St. Magnus, Ratisbon. Colgan calls him ‘vir patriarum antiquitatum scientissimus et sitientissimus.’ At St. Magnus he also found a manuscript life of St. Erhard, and sent a transcript to Ussher. At Kaiserheim White transcribed for Hugh Boy Macanward [q. v.] the life of Colman, patron saint of Austria. He also copied manuscripts at Biberach and at Metz. White was long resident at Schaffhausen, and is sometimes spoken of as ‘Scaphusio-Helvetius.’ His best known work, the ‘Apologia pro Hiberniâ,’ is believed to have been written as early as 1615, and was long supposed to be lost. Lynch used an imperfect copy for his ‘Cambrensis Eversus.’ The manuscript from which the ‘Apologia’ is printed was found in the Burgundian library at Brussels in 1847.

White was in Ireland from 1638 to 1640, and gratefully acknowledges the kindness of Ussher, who often asked him to dinner (‘quod modestè renui’), and who admitted him freely to his house and library (letter to Colgan). White appears to have been