{{Short description|British Royal Navy officer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Vice-Admiral |name = Sir John Chambers White |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB}} |birth_date=c. 1770 |death_date= 2 April {{Death year and age|1845|1770}} |birth_place= New York City |death_place= Sheerness, Kent |image= |caption= |nickname= |allegiance= {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom |service_years= 1783 to 1845 |rank= Royal Navy Vice-Admiral |branch= 22px Royal Navy |commands= Nore Command |unit= |battles= {{tree list}} * French Revolutionary War ** Action of 16 July 1797 * Napoleonic Wars ** Action of 13 March 1806 {{tree list/end}} |awards=Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |other_work= }} Vice-Admiral '''Sir John Chambers White''', KCB (c. 1770 – 2 April 1845) was a British Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century, who participated in a number of engagements during the Napoleonic Wars. He achieved most of his fame in the late 1790s as the commander of {{HMS|Sylph|1795|6}}, a small brig operating in Northern European waters. White was able to capture a number of equivalent French, Spanish and Dutch vessels and on one occasion was instrumental in the destruction of a much larger French frigate by a British squadron. In 1798 he was with the squadron that discovered the French invasion attempt on Ireland and acted as a messenger in the campaign to destroy the invasion force that ended at the Battle of Tory Island. He was later flag captain for Sir John Borlase Warren and participated at the action of 13 March 1806 and the destruction of the ''Regulus'' in 1814. After the war, White largely retired, but retained several shore appointments and rose to the rank of vice-admiral.
==Early life== White was born in approximately 1770, the son of wealthy New York City merchant Henry White and his wife Eve (Van Cortlandt) White (a daughter of Frederick Van Cortlandt). Among his siblings were General Frederick Van Cortlandt White, Henry White Jr. (wife of their cousin, Anna Van Cortlandt), Anne White (wife of Sir John Hayes, 1st Baronet), Frances White (wife of Dr. Archibald Bruce), and Margaret White (wife of Peter Jay Munro).<ref name="Burke1838">{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=John |title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry; Or, Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Etc |date=1838 |publisher=Henry Colburn |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VxdVAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA242 |access-date=24 October 2022 |language=en}}</ref> His father was a member of the New York City Council and President of the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1772–73. The Whites were ardent Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War, and in 1783 the family abandoned their home in New York and moved to London. John White joined the Royal Navy soon afterwards.<ref name="LS147"/>
==Career== In 1790 he was promoted to lieutenant and served in the French Revolutionary Wars, becoming commander of the brig {{HMS|Sylph|1795|2}} in 1795.<ref name="LS147">Sabine, p. 147–148</ref>
''Sylph'' was a highly successful cruiser in home waters. At the action of 12 May 1796 she captured the Dutch brig ''Mercury''. Then in 1796 she captured the French privateer ''Phoenix''. ''Sylph'' assisted {{HMS|Anson|1781|2}} in the destruction of the French corvette ''Calliope'' at the action of 16 July 1797. Together, they drove ''Calliope'' on shore, where ''Sylph'' proceeded to fire on her. When {{HMS|Pomone|1794|2}} checked a week later, ''Calliope'' was wrecked; her crew were camped on shore trying to salvage what stores they could. ''Pomone'' confirmed that the flute ''Freedom'' and a brig that ''Anson'' and ''Sylph'' had also driven ashore too were wrecked.<ref>{{London Gazette|date=25 July 1797|issue=14031|page=697}}</ref> In August, ''Sylph'' attacked Sable d'Olonne. In 1798, White seized six French, Spanish and American ships in the Bay of Biscay, and during October participated in the opening stages of the Battle of Tory Island. In 1799, White was rewarded with promotion to post captain and was given command of the ship of the line HMS ''Renown'', flagship of his former squadron commander Sir John Borlase Warren. ''Renown'' served in the Mediterranean, and in 1801 engaged the defences of Porto Ferrajo.<ref name="AR267">''The Annual Register'', 1845, p. 267</ref>
In 1803, ''Renown'' was attached to the blockade of Toulon, and the following year Warren and White were transferred to the ship of the line HMS ''Foudroyant'' in Britain, later assigned to find and defeat the French squadrons in the Atlantic during the Atlantic campaign of 1806. These squadrons could not be found, but ''Foudroyant'' was engaged at the successful Action of 13 March 1806, when a separate French squadron was defeated and captured. In 1810, White took command of the first rate HMS ''Hibernia'' under Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, sailing for the Mediterranean, where he took command of HMS ''Centaur'' off Toulon. In 1811 he assisted the Spanish defenders at the first Siege of Tarragona and subsequently involved in the destruction of the ''Regulus'' in 1814.<ref name="AR268"/>
===Later life=== After the war, White left active service but continued to advance in rank, becoming a rear-admiral in 1830 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1841, by which time he was a vice-admiral. He served as superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard and in January 1844 was made Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, dying suddenly the following year.<ref>[http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowCommanders.php William Loney RN]</ref>
==Personal life== White was twice married. His first marriage was to Cordelia Fanshawe (d. 1809), a daughter of Christiana ({{nee}} Gennys) Fanshawe and Capt. Robert Fanshawe (a son of Rear-Admiral Charles Fanshawe).<ref name=Mosley2003/>
After his first wife's death in 1809, he married Charlotte Elizabeth Dalrymple, the daughter of Lt.-Gen. Sir Hew Whiteford Dalrymple, 1st Baronet and Frances Leighton (a daughter of Gen. Francis Leighton). Together, they were the parents of:<ref name=Mosley2003>Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes.'' Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 1, page 1024.</ref>
* General Sir Henry Dalrymple White (1820–1886), who married Louisa Mary Smith, daughter of Martin Tucker Smith, in 1858. After her death, he married Alice Elizabeth Malcolm, daughter of Neil Malcolm, 13th of Poltalloch, in 1863.<ref name=Mosley2003/>
Sir John died on 2 April 1845 at Sheerness, Kent. He was survived by his second wife and their son.<ref name="AR268">''The Annual Register'', 1845, p. 268</ref>
===Descendants=== Through his son's second marriage, he was posthumously a grandfather to Sir Godfrey Dalrymple-White, 1st Baronet, who married Hon. Catherine Mary Cary (a daughter of Byron Cary, 12th Viscount Falkland).<ref name=Mosley2003/>
==See also== * {{cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=White, John Chambers |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=John Murray}}
==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}
==References== * {{cite journal | title = Deaths - April | journal = The Annual Register |year = 1845 |pages = 267–268 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Q21dAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Sir+John+Chambers+White%22&pg=RA1-PA267}} Retrieved on 1 June 2009 *{{cite book | last = Sabine | first = Lorenzo | year = 1864 | title = Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution | url = https://archive.org/details/biographicalske04sabigoog | page = [https://archive.org/details/biographicalske04sabigoog/page/n428 418] | quote = Sir John Chambers White. | publisher = Little, Brown and Company }}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box | title=Commander-in-Chief, The Nore | years=1844–1845 | before=Sir Edward Brace| after=Sir Edward Durnford King}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, John Chambers}} Category:1770s births Category:1845 deaths Category:Royal Navy vice admirals Category:Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Military personnel from New York City