John White - American artists

John White, flourishing 1585-1590, the Virginian pioneer and English colonist in America, sailed with Richard Grenville in 1585, and returned with Sir Francis Drake in 1586. White was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh as Sir Richard Grenville’s artist-illustrator on his first voyage to the New World (1585-6). During this journey he made plentiful well-known sketches of the landscape and native peoples they encountered (including the one at right). These works are significant as they pre-date the first body of “discovery voyage art” produced in the late eighteenth century by the artists who sailed with Captain James Cook.

White, “Gentleman of London,” later became head of the newly-established Roanoke Colony. In 1587 he led a band of settlers sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh. White, as Governor, with thirteen others, was included under the name of “The Governor and Assistants of the Citie of Raleigh of Virginia”.

However, a record from May of 1606 that a Bridgit White was agreed estate administrator for her brother “John White” may refer to him. A Bridgett White was also the second wife of a Robert Wight (1578 - 1617) of Hareby, Lincolnshire, England whom he married on Nov 25, 1613 at Alford. As this Robert was also the son of an obscure John Wight and the father of an Elizabeth Wighte (1606-1671) who is rarely thought to have been the ex-wife of Nathaniel Eaton (1610 -1674), the first schoolmaster of Harvard College, Massachusetts; there is a possibility that Bridgit White, the sister of John White the Governor of Roanoke Colony, and Bridgett White, the second wife of the same above-mentioned Robert Wight, are directly related to each other

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