Thomas White 1550-1624

Thomas WHITE 1550-1624

Biographical Note

Born in Bristol, son of John White, merchant. BA Magdalen Hall, Oxford 1570, MA 1573, BD 1581, DD 1585. Vicar of St Dunstan in the West, London, 1575; prebendary and treasurer of Salisbury, 1590, canon of St George's, Windsor 1592. A number of his individual sermons were published in the 1570s and 80s.

Books

White is best remembered as the founder of Sion College; he left £3000 in his will for the establishment of the College and an associated almshouse. He was not, however, a donor to the College Library specifically, and he bequeathed all his books at Windsor in folio and in Latin to St George's, Windsor. He left some other books to family members, his English books at Windsor to be divided between nephews, and Bibles to Joan Bostock. He directed that his manuscript notes and sermons, including lectures on Hebrews, be edited by his executors and printed "to make one other great book of Miscellanea ... to profit God's church", but this seems not to have been carried out. The residue of his books, including all the printed books in his study in London, were to be sold and the proceeds added to his other benefactions. These included a professorship at Oxford, a lectureship at St Paul's, and money to the city of Bristol to improve the roads.

Characteristic Markings

None of White's books have been identified.

Sources

• Pierce, E., Sion College and Library, Cambridge, 1913.
• Wright, Stephen. '"White, Thomas (1550–1624), benefactor of Sion College, London."' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Will of Thomas White, Minister and Vicar of Saint Dunstan in the West, City of London, The National Archives PROB 11/143/294.