Due to few surviving documents and his common name, John White’s early history is unclear, but he was likely born sometime between 1540 and 1550. The coat of arms granted to him in 1587 ties him to the White family from Truro, Cornwall, in England. During the late-1560s, John White was a parishioner of St. Martin Ludgate in London. He married Tomasyn Cooper in June 1566. The couple’s first child Thomas was born in 1567 but died the following year. Their daughter Eleanor, born in 1568, became the mother of Virginia Dare.
Records of White’s activities are inconclusive during the 1570s, but it appears he and William Boswell presented Queen Elizabeth with an Amazonian mask in the late-1570s. It is also speculated that White attended Martin Frobisher’s expedition to Baffin Island in 1577, and his drawings from the expedition were published in 1578. No full copies of the publication survive, but some drawings have been preserved.
John White is best known for his involvement in the Roanoke colonial expeditions. White served as the official artist and cartographer of the Grenville-Lane colonial expedition to Roanoke Island 1585 to 1586. During the voyage to Roanoke, White documented the expedition’s temporary camps and fortifications in the Spanish West Indies as well as the local plant and animal life in the Caribbean.
After arriving at Roanoke Island, White worked closely with Thomas Hariot, the expedition’s lead scientist. Over the course of the year, White and Hariot chronicled the plant, wildlife, and Native Americans in the New World. Hariot’s work was published in his Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia in 1588. In 1590, Theodor de Bry combined Hariot’s book with White’s drawings in America, Part I. Theodo de Bry’s compilation was published in four languages and became popular throughout Europe.
When Lord Grenville returned to England in August 1585, Ralph Lane was left in charge. It is uncertain whether White remained like his academic partner Thomas Hariot. The colony suffered setbacks when relations with the Native American tribes diminished. Governor Ralph Lane, determined to find riches in the new world, became more violent with the natives. He captured the Native American High Chief Menatonon and his son Skiko and became increasingly distrustful of the natives. Lane believed the natives were conspiring to destroy the colony, and in response Lane killed Chief Wingina. With relations soured and the absence of reinforcements and supplies, the expedition returned to England in 1586 after Sir Francis Drake’s fleet stopped at the colony. However, before departing Drake’s fleet was hit by a hurricane, and it is presumed that some of White’s work was destroyed during the violent weather.
Despite the failure of the Grenville/Lane expedition, Sir Walter Raleigh funded another expedition to the Virginia area in 1587. The second attempt was not a military expedition and was comprised of families. John White was selected as the governor and leader of the expedition. White’s pregnant daughter, Eleanor, and her husband Ananias Dare, one of White’s twelve assistants, accompanied the journey. White, unlike Lane, was a compassionate man who believed in peaceful relations with the Native Americans. With the help of Manteo, a Native American ally, White hoped the colony could peacefully coexist with the natives.
White’s expedition arrived at Roanoke Island on July 22, 1587. Originally intending to establish the City of Raleigh in the Chesapeake Bay after picking up colonists left behind in the Grenville/Lane expedition, plans changed when Simon Ferdinando, the admiral of the fleet, ordered the colonists disembark at Roanoke Island. Ferdinando hoped to become wealthy privateering for the remainder of the season. Ferdinando remained a month before returning to England.
During the month, White and Manteo successfully reestablished relations with the Manteo’s Croatoan tribe. The Croatoans agreed to serve as intermediaries between the English and the remnants of the dead Chief Wingina’s tribe, but Wingina’s men already attacked and killed one of the English settlers. White and Manteo led an attack on the village of Dasamonquepeuc in retaliation. Unknown to the English, Wingina’s men already fled the village and instead they attacked some Croatoans scavenging in the village. Luckily, Manteo eventually smoothed over the incident with the Croatoans.
John White presided over the christening of Manteo on August 13, 1587, and he named his native ally the Lord of Roanoke and Dasamongueponke. Five days later on August 18, 1587, John White’s daughter Eleanor gave birth to Virginia Dare. Virginia Dare was the first English born child in the New World. When Ferdinando prepared to sail back to England, the colonists elected White, against his personal wishes, to return and lobby for supplies and support. Before leaving, the colonists agreed that, if they moved, they would carve their new location into a tree. If distressed, the colonists would cross through the word. White left 116 colonists at Roanoke Island.
In England, White petitioned for increased supplies and support for the Roanoke Colony. Raleigh and Lord Grenville worked to secure supplies and reinforcements. However, the attack of the Spanish Armada in 1588 led to the conscription of all capable English ships. Despite getting an exemption from Drake to return to Roanoke, Spanish privateers prevented White from making the voyage back to America.
White returned to Roanoke Island on August 18, 1590, three years later. Coincidently he arrived on the date of Virginia Dare’s third birthday. However, White found the colony abandoned. The only trace of the colonists were the letters “CRO” carved into a tree and the word “CROATOAN” carved into “one of the chiefe trees or postes at the right side of the entrance.” Neither were crossed out or showed any sign of distress. White believed that the colonists had moved 50 miles inland and joined Manteo’s Croatoan tribe. However, bad weather prevented the ships from making the voyage and the English vessels returned to England. White never reunited with the colonists or his family. The missing colonists are known as the “Lost Colony.”
Little is known of John White’s life after returning to England. Unable to find funding to return to America, he lost the resolve to find the lost colony and hoped his daughter and granddaughter were safe and happy living with Manteo and his tribe. It is recorded that by February 1593 White lived at a house in County Cork, Ireland, possibly as a freeholder of a prominent landholder. Little other information has survived. His last recorded words were in a letter written to Hakluyt in 1593 where he wished the planters of Virginia gods help. The date of White’s death is unknown.