Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/74

 of the 7th dragoons. On 31 Aug. 1860 he attained the rank of lieutenant-general, and on 10 Nov. 1862 was nominated K.C.B. He died in London at 15 Pembridge Crescent, Bayswater, on 27 Jan. 1868. In 1816 he married Mary, daughter of Major Mylne of the 24th dragoons.

[Gent. Mag. 1868, i. 400; Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornub.; Barker and Stenning's Westminster School Reg.; Army Lists; Times, 1 Feb. 1868; Colburn's United Service Mag. 1868, i. 446; Thackwell's Narrative of the Second Seikh War, 1851, pp. 35–6, 169.] 

WHITE, NICHOLAS (d. 1593), master of the rolls in Ireland, described as of Whites Hall, near Knocktopher, co. Kilkenny, a descendant of one of the early Pale settlers, was a relative apparently, perhaps the son, of James White of Waterford, gentleman, to whom Henry VIII in 1540 granted a lease of the rectory of Dunkitt in co. Kilkenny (Cal. Fiants, Hen. VIII, p. 154). He is surmised to be identical with the ‘Nicholas Whyt’ mentioned in the codicil to the will of James Butler, ninth earl of Ormonde and Ossory (, Cal. Patent Rolls, i. 133). He is mentioned in April 1563 as a justice of the peace for the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary, and the following year as recorder of the city of Waterford (Cal. Fiants, Eliz. Nos. 542, 666). Visiting England subsequently, he made a favourable impression on Elizabeth and Cecil. On 4 Nov. 1568 the queen directed him to be appointed to the seneschalship of Wexford and the constableship and rule of Leighlin and Ferns, in the room of Thomas Stucley [q. v.] On 18 Jan. following he obtained a grant of the reversion of the lands of Dunbrody in co. Wexford, and of sundry other leases (cf. Cal. Fiants, Nos. 1527, 1537, 1543, 1558, 1562, 1572, 1638), with instructions at the same time to be admitted a privy councillor (Cal. State Papers, Irel. Eliz. i. 392, 400). It is noteworthy that his advancement was attributed to the influence of the Earl of Ormonde (ib. i. 404).

On his way back to Ireland he had a curious interview with Mary Queen of Scots at Tutbury in February 1569, of which he sent a detailed account to Cecil (, Burghley Papers, pp. 509–12). During the Butlers' war his property was plundered, and he himself obliged for a time to take refuge in Waterford (Cal. State Papers, Irel. Eliz. i. 406, 412). On 28 May, in consideration of his losses, he obtained a grant of the lands of St. Katherine's, Leixlip (Cal. Fiants, Eliz. No. 1369; cf. Cal. Hatfield MSS. i. 413), where he afterwards established his residence. As seneschal of Wexford he kept a firm hand over the Kavanaghs (Cal. State Papers, Irel. Eliz. i. 426), and by his conduct at the siege of Castle Mocollop in May 1571 won the approbation of the lord justice, Sir William Fitzwilliam (ib. i. 457). In September he repaired, with permission from the state to be absent six months, to England. On 14 July 1572 he was appointed master of the rolls in Ireland (patent, 18 July) in succession to Henry Draycott, with concession to retain the office of seneschal of Wexford for the further space of eight months, ‘in the hope that he may more effectually prosecute those that murdered his son-in-law, Robert Browne’ (Cal. Patent Rolls, i. 548;, Law Officers, p. 60; see also under ). At the same time the lord chancellor was directed to accept a surrender from him of his lands in counties Tipperary, Waterford, and Kilkenny for a regrant of them to him in fee-simple.

After his return to Ireland in the autumn of 1572 a dispute arose between him and Archbishop Adam Loftus [q. v.], on the death of the lord chancellor, Robert Weston [q. v.], as to the custody of the great seal, which Loftus claimed ex officio (Cal. State Papers, Irel. Eliz. i. 506, 509). The incident caused bad blood between him and the officials of English birth, and was followed by disastrous consequences for him. A year or two later he supported the agitation of the gentry of the Pale against cess by refusing to sign the order for their committal [see under, 1544–1602], and drew down upon him the wrath of Sir Henry Sidney, who described him to Walsingham as ‘the worst of Irishmen’ (ib. ii. 117). He offered an explanation of his conduct to Burghley on 13 June 1577, alleging that he had no intention to impugn the queen's prerogative (Hatfield MSS. ii. 154, 186). But Sidney, who from the first had disliked him as belonging to the faction of his enemy, the Earl of Ormonde, was in no humour to brook opposition from him, and a charge being preferred against him by the attorney-general, Thomas Snagge [q. v.], of remissness in the execution of the duties of his office and of maintaining any cause that touches his countrymen ‘how foul soever it be’ (Cal. State Papers, Irel. Eliz. ii. 124, 126), he was in April 1578 suspended from the mastership of the rolls (Cal. Fiants, Eliz. No. 3267). He found, however, a friend in Sir William Drury [q. v.], and in September received permission to repair to England to