John White (c.1540 – c.1606) , 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.[1] 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 numerous famous 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" created in the late eighteenth century by the artists who sailed with Captain James Cook.

White, "Gentleman of London," later became governor 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, were incorporated under the name of “The Governor and Assistants of the Citie of Raleigh of Virginia”.[2] He was the father of Eleanor Dare (née White), by whom the first English baby was born in the New World, White`s granddaughter Virginia Dare. However, when the colony ran low on supplies the colonists requested that White return to England for provisions. His return to Roanoke was delayed by England`s conflict with Spain and the Spanish Armada, and when he at last returned to Roanoke in August of 1590 he found it deserted. Forced by bad weather to abandon the search of adjacent islands for the colonists, he returned to Plymouth, England on October 24 of that year. An Indian he brought back from Virginia, was left in Bideford.


A map of the Roanoke area, by John White
Little is known of White`s life after the failure of the Roanoke Colony. He lived in Plymouth, [3][4] and also owned a house at Newtowne, Kylmore (Kilmore, County Cork), Ireland. He appears to have been in Ireland living on the estates of Sir Walter Raleigh, making maps of land for Raleigh`s tenants. The last surviving document related to White is a letter he wrote from Ireland in 1593 to the publisher of his Roanoke drawings.


However, a record from May of 1606 that a Bridgit White was appointed 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 November 25, 1613 at Alford. As this Robert was also the son of an obscure John Wight (b. abt. 1552) and the father of an Elizabeth Wighte (1606–1671) who is sometimes 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.