John White

John White (1575 – 21 July 1648) was an English clergyman, the rector of a parish in Dorchester, Dorset. He was instrumental in obtaining charters for the New England Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company. He took a personal interest in the settlement of New England. Life He was son of John White, yeoman, and his wife Isabel, daughter of John Bawle of Lichfield. He was born in the manor house at Stanton St John, Oxfordshire, where his father held a lease from New College, Oxford, and was baptised there on 6 January 1575. His elder brother, Josias, was rector of Hornchurch, Essex, 1614–23, and father of James White, a merchant of Boston, Massachusetts. In 1587 he entered Winchester School, and then was elected a fellow of New College in 1595. He graduated B.A. on 12 April 1597 and M.A. on 16 January 1601. He was appointed rector of Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester, in 1606, and for the rest of his life was identified with that place. He was a moderate conforming Puritan, concerned with reforming his parish. John married Ann Burges, daughter of John Burges of Peterborough. They had three known children: John; Samuel (who married first Sarah Cuttance, daughter of shipmaster Edward Cuttance); and Josiah, who married first Mary Hallett. Dorchester Company of Adventurers