Dr. John White, Bishop of Winchester

Dr. John White, Bishop of Winchester, was the (twin?) brother of Sir John White, Lord Mayor of London (1563) and - like him - the son of Robert White of Farnham and Katryn Wells. Their sister Agnes married a distant cousin, Sir Thomas White of South Warnborough, and Sir Thomas' sister Sibil was the first wife of Sir John the Lord Mayor. (The Bishop, who was an arch-Catholic, kept the Roman rule of celibacy.)

As far as is known, the Catholic "gentry" Whites were not related to the Protestant/Puritan family of John White "of Dorchester". The "Dr. White warden of New College" who stood surety on the 1573 marriage bond of Avis White of Timsbury and Simon Perrot of Oxfordshire was Thomas White, LLD, Archdeacon of Berkshire and Chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral.

Personal arms: Per chevron embattled or and gules, three roses counterchanged, slipped [and leaved] vert, on a chief of the second three hour-glasses argent framed gold

Dr. John White (1511-1560) (3,13) who was educated at this school becoming a fellow of the college in 1525 and gaining his Masters degree there in 1534. In the same year, being esteemed for his classical knowledge, he was appointed Master of Wykeham’s School. He was soon made warden of Winchester College [note: this is the oldest surviving "public" school in England, after which Eton was modeled, and was intended to prepare boys for Oxford (or Cambridge) rather than being a part of Oxford University] and appears to have been principally instrumental in saving it, when the adjoining college of St Elizabeth was destroyed and he purchased the site. As Rector of Chawton [Cheyton] in 1550 he held to the ancient faith and, as he admitted receiving letters and books from beyond the seas condemning Edward VI’s proceedings, he was committed to ‘The Tower’ in 1551. It was said 'until he showed better conformity in matters of religion'. (4)

On Mary’s accession to the throne in 1553 (5) he espoused her cause and publicly disputed with Cranmer, Latimer, and others. He gained favour with Mary as a zealous Roman Catholic and was rewarded with the Bishopric of Lincoln in 1554. The following year he was incorporated Doctor of Divinity at Oxford and in 1556 translated to the see of Winchester. (1) The dignity however was granted him upon condition that he paid £1,000 yearly out of the revenues of the see to cardinal Pole Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen Mary however died of dropsy in November 1558 (6) and his fame as an eloquent preacher led to his appointment to preach the sermon at her funeral at St Paul’s Cross. His speech was less than complimentary to her successor and being zealous for the old religion at the public disputation in Westminster Abbey he even threatened to excommunicate her. Outraged Elizabeth had him committed to ‘The Tower’ again on 3rd April 1559. His health however declined and he was soon released and permitted to retire to his sisters house in South Warnborough where he died on 11 January 1560. In accordance with his will he was interred at Winchester Cathedral.

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JOHN WHITE, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. "24 January, 1460, Bishop Wainflete granted to John White and Robert White, his son, for their lives, the office of Parks and Keepers of the Old and Little Park, and of his Chace of Farnham adjoining the Parks, with a fee of two pence a day for each Park, and the usual commodities and profits to the Chase belonging." (Page 136.)

"Wood, in his Athenae, says that John Whyte, brother of Sir John Whyte, Lord Mayor of London in 1563, was son of Robert Whyte of Farnham, son of John of the same place, who was son of Thomas Whyte of Purvile in Hants; was born at Farnham, and was bred at Winchester School, of which he became Master about 1534. He was afterwards made Warden and Bishop of Lincoln on the deprivation of Dr. John Taylor, the temporalities being restored to him May 2, 1554. He was translated to Winchester on the death of Stephen Gardner, in 1557. He was a zealous Papist, and much in favor with Queen Mary. Fox has recorded several of his Discourses, and that which he held with Bishop Ridley at Oxford when he was about to be burnt in 1555. He preached a Sermon on the death of Queen Mary, taking for his text, Eccles. iv: 2, in which he spake of her virtues in the strongest terms, and was so much affected that he could not proceed. Recovering himself, he said she had left a sister to succeed her, of great worth also, whom we were bound to obey; 'for,' saith he, 'the living dog is better than the dead lion; but I must still say with my text, I have praised the dead rather than the living; for certain it is, Mary hath chosen the better part.' Queen Elizabeth was highly offended, and he, having threatened to excommunicate her, as Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, did, was deprived of the Bishoprick in June, 1559, when he retired to his sister's house at South Warnborough in Hants and died there on the 11th of January following. He was a benefactor to New College, Oxford. He is reputed to be a man of austere life, eminent for piety and learning, an eloquent orator, a solid divine, a nervous preacher, and, as Camden tells us in his Annals of Elizabeth, a tolerable poet for the time. He published two books against Peter Martyr, a book of epigrams, and Verses on the Marriage of King Philip and Queen Mary." (Manning and Bray's Hist. of Surrey, p. 177.)

JOHN WHITE (4), Bishop of Winchester, b. 1509. (Ref.: History Winchester College, p. 208.)

DR. JOHN WHITE; BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, in 1556-59. Hampshire

Ancestry: Thomas White, of Farnham and Puroyle, Hants; will proved Oct. 19, 1467. His son:

John White, of Farnham, Surrey. His son:

Robert White, of Farnham, Surrey. His sons:

i. JOHN WHITE, D.D., Lord Bishop of Winchester, 1556-1559, was b. 1509, d. 1559.

ii. Sir John White, Lord Mayor of London, 1563.

(and others, including a sister Agnes)

JOHN WHITE, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, was born at Farnham, educated at Winchester (in Wyckham's school there), admitted perpetual fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1527; graduated to M. A. in March 23, 1533-4, being appointed in 1534 to Mastership in Winchester School in place of Richard Tuchiner. Afterwards he was Rector of Cheyton, near Winchester; then made Warden of Winchester College in 1541; sent to the Tower for his Papal proclivities in 1550 under King Edward VI., restored to liberty by Queen Mary; made Bishop, first of Lincoln in 1554, and, second, of Winchester in 1556. He preached Queen Mary's funeral sermon in 1559, and used certain expressions in it, which gave mortal offense to Elizabeth. After bestowing much praise upon Mary he proceeded to say she had left a sister to succeed her, a lady of great worth also, whom they were now bound to obey; for, saith he, "melior est canis vivus leone mortuo" (a living dog is better than a dead lion)--certainly not a very elegant compliment to Queen Elizabeth. He was again committed to custody, and actually threatened, together with another Romanizing Bishop (Watson), to excommunicate the Queen, so was deprived of his bishoprick in 1559. He was allowed to retire to his sister's house at South Warnborough in Hampshire. Strype, the historian, says, "He died of ague Jan. 12, 1559 or 1560, at Sir Thomas White's place in Hampshire, and on the 15th was carried and buried at Winchester." (Memorials, Vol. II, p. 265, Note.)

Fuller, the historian, speaks of him thus, "John White was born in this county (Hants) of a worshipful house; began on the floor and mounted up to the roof of spiritual dignity in this diocese." (Fuller's "Worthies," Vol. I, p. 405.)

"The White's of Hampshire--of Puroyle--sent their sons both to Winchester and New College, Oxford. This was usual as keeping up family, school and academical associations. Generation after generation we find the members of the same family resorting to the same public schools and colleges, as if it was the family tradition carefully to be observed, that its members should go where their fathers themselves had been educated. Another John White (Century White), born at Henlan, in Pembrokeshire, in Wales, about 1590, goes to College at Oxford, where WELSHMEN at that day invariably went, namely to Jesus College, just as they do even now." (Rev. John Holding's MS.)

NOTE.--"There is every reason to believe that the Patriarch's family was a branch of the great Roman Catholic family of Hampshire." (Mrs. Frances B. Troup.) (That's partly because she messed up and mis-equated John White, Bishop of Winchester, to Thomas White, LL.D, quondam Warden of New College, Oxford. It was THOMAS who was the great-uncle of John White, "Patriarch of Dorchester".)

John White (1510–1560) was an English bishop, a Roman Catholic who was promoted in the reign of Mary Tudor.

Life[edit source | editbeta]He was born in Farnham, Hampshire and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1529, M.A. in 1534, and D.D. in 1555.[1]

He was Warden of Winchester College from 1541, and wrote verses on the marriage to Philip II of Spain.[2] He was Archdeacon of Taunton from 1551 to 1554 after which he was Bishop of Lincoln from 1554 to 1556. He was then Bishop of Winchester from 1556, but was deprived of his see in 1559 on the accession of Elizabeth I, and imprisoned. There is a memorial to him in Winchester College Chapel.[1]

He was brother to Sir John White, alderman and MP.[3]

John White, Bishop of Winchester, who flourished under Queen Mary I but was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth I immediately upon her accession. Tradition has it that he referred disparagingly to Elizabeth in Mary's funeral oration, citing the old adage "a live dog is better than a dead lion", and that Elizabeth (predictably) took umbrage and got even.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45541 P. 224. Funeral of the late bishop of Winchester. John White, warden of Winchester college, consecrated bishop of Lincoln 1554 (see p. 58), translated to Winchester 1556, deprived 1559. He was brother to alderman sir John White, to whose house he had been allowed to repair on coming out of the Tower (see p. 203), this being an instance (to which there are many parallels) of two brothers bearing the same Christian name. Sir Thomas White, of South Warnborough, Hampshire, was his brother-in-law, for, though not nearly related in paternal descent, there had been two marriages which connected the families, sir Thomas White having married Agnes sister to the bishop and sir John, and sir John having married for his first wife Sibell sister of sir Thomas White. See the Collectanea Topogr. et Geneal. vol. vii. p. 212.

JOHN WHITE, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, was born at Farnham, educated at Winchester (in Wyckham’s school there), admitted perpetual fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1527; graduated to M. A. in March 23, 1533-4, being appointed in 1534 to Mastership in Winchester School in place of Richard Tuchiner. Afterwards he was Rector of Cheyton, near Winchester; then made Warden of Winchester College in 1541; sent to the Tower for his Papal proclivities in 1550 under King Edward VI., restored to liberty by Queen Mary; made Bishop, first of Lincoln in 1554, and, second, of Winchester in 1556. He preached Queen Mary’s funeral sermon in 1559, and used certain expressions in it, which gave mortal offense to Elizabeth. After bestowing much praise upon Mary he proceeded to say she had left a sister to succeed her, a lady of great worth also, whom they were now bound to obey; for, saith he, “melior est canis vivus leone mortuo” (a living dog is better than a dead lion)–certainly not a very elegant compliment to Queen Elizabeth. He was again committed to custody, and actually threatened, together with another Romanizing Bishop (Watson), to excommunicate the Queen, so was deprived of his bishoprick in 1559. He was allowed to retire to his sister’s house at South Warnborough in Hampshire. Strype, the historian, says, “He died of ague Jan. 12, 1559 or 1560, at Sir Thomas White’s place in Hampshire, and on the 15th was carried and buried at Winchester.” (Memorials, Vol. II, p. 265, Note.)