Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/85

 nominators to eight out of the twenty places provided in his almshouses at Sion College, and the company were also connected as auditors with the moral philosophy lecture which he had founded at Oxford in 1(521, with a stipend of 100l. to the reader; five exhibitions of 5l. each were made for scholars of Magdalen Hall, and 4l. given to the principal as well as other sums derived from the manor of Langdon Hill, Essex, conveyed to the university (, ''Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford'', 1796, ii. 335, ii. 872).

He died on 1 March 1623-4, and was buried in the chancel of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street. In spite of his widely diffused benefactions there was no monument to his memory until 1876, when Sion College and the trustees of the charities at Bristol caused one, designed by Sir A. W. Blomfield, to be erected near his grave. Both of his wives were buried in the same church. After his death the university of Oxford honoured his memory in a public oration delivered by (1597-1646) [q. v.], the first reader of the moral philosophy lecture founded by White, which was printed with some Latin and Greek verses, chiefly by members of Magdalen Hall, under the title of 'Schola Moralis Philosophiae Oxon. in funere Whiti pullata,' Oxford, 1624, sm. 4to. There is a copy of the book in the Bodleian Library. At the back of the title-page is a list of White's benefactions to Oxford. Some copies of the oration seem to have been published separately.

'He was accused for being a great pluralist, though I cannot learn that at once he had more than one cure of souls, the rest being dignities, as false is the aspersion of his being a great usurer' (, Worthies, 1811, ii. 299). Against these accusations his numerous charities during his life and by bequest are a sufficient answer. By his will, dated 1 Oct. 1623, besides a long list of smaller legacies, he left money for lectureships at St. Paul's, at St. Dunstan's, and one for the Newgate prisoners; but his chief dotation was 3,000l. for the purchase of premises 'fit to make a college for a corporation of all the ministers, parsons, vicars, lecturers, and curates within London and suburbs thereof; as also for a convenient house or place fast by, to make a convenient almeshouse for twenty persons, viz. ten men and ten women.' This was afterwards known as Sion College, designed as a guild of the clergy of the city of London and its suburbs, placing them in the same position as most other callings and professions who enjoyed charters of incorporation, and with common privileges and property. All his Latin folios were left to the dean and chapter of Windsor, and it is worthy of record that scarcely any place whence he derived income or dignity was forgotten. He requested John Vicars, John Downeham, and John Simpson to examine and perfect his manuscript sermons and lectures on the Hebrews, and print them, as well as a volume of 'Miscellanea,' from his papers. These two wishes were not carried out. To the exertions of John Simpson, his cousin, and one of his executors are chiefly due the charter obtained in 1630 incorporating the college, and also the erection of the building at London Wall in 1629, where the library remained until its removal to the new building on the Victoria Embankment in 1886. Dr. Simpson was the builder and founder of the great library which now forms the most striking feature of the institution (, History of Sion College, 1724, pp. 8-15). 'In the chamber of Bristol is his picture with some verses under it, which end "Quique Albos coeli portamque invenit apertam"' (, Bristol, p. 652). There is also a portrait at Sion College.

 WHITE, THOMAS (1593–1676), philosopher and controversialist, who wrote under the pseudonyms of, , and or , was born in 1593, being the second son of Richard White of Hutton, Essex, by his wife Mary, daughter of  [q. v.], the celebrated lawyer. He was carefully educated in the Roman catholic religion, and sent while very young to the English College at St. Omer, and afterwards to the college at Valladolid, which he entered on 4 Nov. 1609 (Palatine Note-book, iii. 103, 175). Subsequently he removed to the English college at Douay, and, having completed his studies, he was ordained priest at Arras on 25 March 1617 under the name of Blacloe. He afterwards graduated B.D., and was employed in teaching classics, philosophy, and theology in Douay College. On 17 Aug. 1623 he set out for England, where some business affairs required his attention, and on his return to Douay in the same year he brought with him one of the ribs of (d.