Author: White, Henry
Biography:
WHITE, Henry (fl 1808)
Henry White, Jun., whose Poetical Effusions “chiefly extempore” and written “between the ages of sixteen and nineteen” appeared in 1808 from the press of J. H. Hart of 23 Warwick Square, London, was the son of a father already famous in the world of London publishing. Henry White, Sen., was the owner and editor of the Independent Whig (1806-21), a Sunday paper known for its campaigns against what it saw as political corruption. At the time of publication, both he and the Whig’s printer John Harriott Hart were serving prison sentences of three years for libel far away from London, in Dorchester Jail, Dorset. The Effusions might have been a way of bringing the family name back into public view, or of keeping the press running—or it might have been simply a vanity project for both father and son. It is an innocuous collection of poems about friendship, love, the seasons, etc., containing only one even faintly political poem. In the Preface White affirms his good intentions and promises more of the same if the book succeeds. But it did not, and nothing more is heard of him. The family were dissenters and public records are few. If White was just over 19 when the book appeared, he might be the Henry White baptised in St. Marylebone parish on 18 June 1786, son of Henry and Mary White, but confirmation is lacking. After seven prosecutions for libel and after narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in 1820 (thanks in part to the intervention of “friends of the liberty of the press” who raised a subscription for him), in 1821 Henry White Sen. founded another weekly paper, the New Observer, which changed its name first to the Independent Observerand then in 1822 to the Sunday Times—which is with us still. He sold the paper in 1823 but continued to write on politics. He died on 1 May 1828 at his home in Felix Terrace, Islington, and was buried on 8 May at Bunhill Fields. In burial records 1810-40 two men named Henry White were buried as dissenters, in 1820 and 1829 respectively, but not at Bunhill Fields and not obviously connected to Henry White, Sen. (ancestry.com 18 May 2024; findmypast.com 18 May 2024; C. H. Timperley, Dictionary of Printers and Printing [1839]; Wooler’s British Gazette 31 Dec. 1820; Weekly Dispatch [London] 4 May 1828) HJ