Robert White | |
---|---|
Born | 1688 |
Died | 1752 | (aged 64)
Place of birth | Scotland |
Place of death | "White Hall," Hayfield, Frederick County, Colony of Virginia |
Buried at |
Old Opequon Cemetery Opequon Presbyterian Church Kernstown, Virginia, United States |
Allegiance |
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Service/branch |
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Years of service | early 1700s (Great Britain) |
Rank | Captain |
Spouse(s) | Margaret Hoge |
Relations |
John White (father) Alexander White (son) Robert White (grandson) Francis White (great-grandson) Robert White (great-great-grandson) |
Other work | Physician, military officer, pioneer, planter |
Robert White (1688 – 1752) was an early American physician, military officer, pioneer, and planter in the Colony of Virginia. White served as a surgeon in the Royal Navy prior to his arrival in the Thirteen Colonies. White was the progenitor of the White political family of Virginia and West Virginia. He was the father of Alexander White, United States House Representative and a member of the House of Burgesses and Virginia House of Delegates.
Early life and education[]
Robert White was born in Scotland in 1688.[1][2][3] He was the son of John White,[4][5] a physician practicing in Paisley, Renfrewshire[5] who died in 1742.[4] White was of both Scottish and English origins, descending from Covenanters, a Scottish Presbyterian movement during the 17th century.[6] He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh and graduated with an M.D. degree from the institution.[1][3][7][8]
[]
Following the completion of his education, White served as a surgeon[1][2][3][7][8][9][10][11] with the rank of captain[6][11] in the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Great Britain.[1][2][3][6][9][11][12] While it is not for certain why White left his commission in the Royal Navy,[13] White family tradition held that White resigned from the Royal Navy after he engaged in a duel with another officer.[3]
Arrival in America[]
White was the first member of his family to travel to and reside in America.[3][6] Between 1720 and 1730,[3][6][7][9] White arrived in the British Colonies where he visited his relative William Hoge (an ancestor of United States House of Representatives member John Blair Hoge)[6] residing in Delaware Colony.[3][6][8][9] White fell in love with Hoge's eldest daughter Margaret and he married her in Delaware Colony.[1][2][3][6][7][8][9][12] White's marriage to Margaret is likely the cause of his resignation from the Royal Navy.[3] He and Margaret, along with her father William Hoge, relocated near York, Pennsylvania where White erected a residence he named "White Hall" after his family's ancestral home in Scotland.[2][6]
Settlement in Virginia[]
From York, White relocated between 1732 and 1735 as a "pioneer settler"[14] to a stream along Great North Mountain near Winchester in Orange County, Virginia (later included as part of Frederick County following its 1738 creation), where White established a plantation he also named "White Hall,"[1][2][3][6][7][8][9] During this move to Virginia, White was accompanied by his elderly father-in-law William Hoge,[7][9] who settled three miles south of Winchester on Opequon Creek.[2] White was one of the earlier pioneer settlers of Frederick County.[15] White and Hoge, along with other families, established the Opequon Meeting House, the oldest Presbyterian congregation formed west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.[2]
White "staked out" his farm between 1732 or 1735 consisting of 375 acres (152 ha) along Hogue Creek south of the present-day unincorporated community of Hayfield, Virginia along U.S. Route 50.[4][11] White constructed the residence at his "White Hall" farm around 1732, and it served as White's primary residence.[11]
White was one of two physicians practicing in Frederick County along with Daniel Hart (died about 1748).[16] White practiced from his residence near Great North Mountain, and one of his more notable patients was Colonel James Wood, founder of Winchester, Virginia.[16] White's son Alexander married Wood's daughter, Elizabeth Wood.[17][18][19] White was part a larger wave of Scottish physicians that settled in Virginia prior to the American Revolutionary War.[20]
Later life and death[]
White died in 1752 at the age of 64[1][3][8][9][21][22] and was interred in the eastern corner of the Old Opequon Cemetery at the Opequon Presbyterian Church in Kernstown, three miles south of Winchester.[1][3][8][9][21][22] By 1855, White's burial site was located at a tree in the eastern corner of the cemetery[8] and by 1891, a tree still marked his gravesite in the churchyard.[9] White was survived by his three sons, Robert, Alexander, and John, and his wife.[9][21] His son, Robert White, inherited the "home farm" following White's death.[7][8][23]
Marriage and children[]
White married Margaret Hoge, the eldest daughter of White's relative William Hoge[1][2][6][9][24] and his wife, Barbara Hume.[12][24] White and his wife Margaret had three sons and at least two daughters:[9]
- John White (born about 1721)[2][8][21][24]
- Alexander White (1738 – September 19, 1804), married Elizabeth Wood[2][8][21][24]
- Hannah White, married Anthony Dunlevy around 1746[1][2]
- Robert White[2][8][21][24]
- Barbara White,[12][25] married Isaac Julian[25]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Kelly 1901, p. 222.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Kelly 1901, p. 223.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 Kelly 1901, p. 224.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Kerns 1995, p. 109.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Shawkey 1928, p. 39.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Maxwell & Swisher 1897, p. 739.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Quarles 1971, p. 308.
- ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 Foote 1855, p. 23.
- ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 Grigsby 1891, p. 71.
- ↑ Atkinson 1919, p. 394.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Ebert 1988, p. 119.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Bruce 1968, p. 195.
- ↑ Norris 1972, p. 565.
- ↑ Blanton 1980, p. 390.
- ↑ Ebert 1988, p. 144.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Munske & Kerns 2004, p. 117.
- ↑ Munske & Kerns 2004, p. 45.
- ↑ Cartmell 1909, p. 290.
- ↑ Morton 1925, p. 60.
- ↑ Blanton 1980, p. 92.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 Maxwell & Swisher 1897, p. 740.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Fletcher & Gordon 2000, p. 7.
- ↑ Quarles 1971, p. 309.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 Maltby 1920, p. 161.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 O'Dell 2007, p. 201.
Bibliography[]
- Atkinson, George Wesley (1919). Bench and Bar of West Virginia. Charleston, West Virginia: Virginia Law Book Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=qi8aAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Blanton, Wyndham Bolling (1980). Medicine in Virginia in the Eighteenth Century. Ams Press Inc.. ISBN 9780404132385. http://books.google.com/books?id=oiRrAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Bruce, Philip Alexander; William Glover Stanard, Virginia Historical Society (1968). The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 23. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society. http://books.google.com/books?id=sAg1AAAAIAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Cartmell, Thomas Kemp (1909). Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants: A History of Frederick County, Virginia (illustrated) from Its Formation in 1738 to 1908. Winchester, Virginia: The Eddy Press Corporation. http://books.google.com/books?id=o914AAAAMAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Ebert, Rebecca A.; Teresa Lazazzera (1988). Frederick County, Virginia: From the Frontier to the Future: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, Virginia: The Donning Company. ISBN 9780898657258. http://books.google.com/books?id=QhjlAQAACAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Fletcher, Helen Lee; Gordon, C. Langdon (August 30, 2000). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Opequon Presbyterian Church". Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Historic Registers: Frederick County (Northern Region). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Frederick/034-0009_Opequon_Presbyterian_Church_2001_Final_Nomination.pdf. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Foote, William Henry (1855). "Sketches of Virginia, Historical and Biographical, Second Series". Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott and Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=r3kFAAAAQAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Grigsby, Hugh Blair; Virginia Historical Society (1891). The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, With Some Account of the Eminent Virginians of That Era Who Were Members of the Body. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society. http://books.google.com/books?id=IUASAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Kelly, Gwendolyn Dunlevy (1901). A Genealogical History of the Dunlevy Family. Columbus, Ohio: Gwendolyn Dunlevy Kelly. http://books.google.com/books?id=mTZKAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Kerns, Wilmer L. (1995). Frederick County, Virginia: Settlement and Some First Families of Back Creek Valley, 1730-1830. Gateway Press, Incorporated. http://books.google.com/books?id=QCoTAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Maltby, Martha Humphreys; Emma Siggins White (1920). Genesis of the White Family. Kansas City, Missouri: Tiernan-Dart Printing Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=16dbAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Maxwell, Hu; Swisher, Howard Llewellyn (1897). History of Hampshire County, West Virginia From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present. Morgantown, West Virginia: A. Brown Boughner, Printer. OCLC 680931891. http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23304577M/History_of_Hampshire_County_West_Virginia. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Morton, Frederic (1925). The Story of Winchester in Virginia: The Oldest Town in the Shenandoah Valley. Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books. ISBN 9780788417702. http://books.google.com/books?id=wY1iemHVmaEC. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Munske, Roberta R.; Kerns, Wilmer L.; The Hampshire County 250th Anniversary Committee (2004). Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1754-2004. The Hampshire County 250th Anniversary Committee. ISBN 978-0-9715738-2-6. OCLC 55983178. http://books.google.com/books?id=oDUTAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Norris, J. E. (1972). History of the Lower Shenandoah Valley: Counties of Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson, and Clarke; Their Early Settlement and Progress to the Present Time; Geological Features; a Description of Their Historic and Interesting Localities; Cities, Towns, and Villages; Portraits of Some of the Prominent Men, and Biographies of Many of the Representative Citizens. Virginia Book Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=GicSAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- O'Dell, Cecil (2007). Pioneers of Old Frederick County Virginia. Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0-7884-4483-8.
- Quarles, Garland Redd (1971). Some Old Homes in Frederick County, Virginia. http://books.google.com/books?id=TldNAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- Shawkey, Morris Purdy (1928). West Virginia: In History, Life, Literature and Industry, Volume 3. Lewis Publishing Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=nCoTAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
External links[]
- Robert White at Find a Grave
The original article can be found at Robert White (Virginia physician) and the edit history here.