HENRY WHITE.

FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

1772-1773.

B

UT little is known of HENRY WHITE before his arrival in the New York Province, beyond the

fact that he was of Welsh birth and origin. He first appears upon the busy scene of Colonial trade in a Petition, dated May 8, 1756, for leave to ship bread to South Carolina for the use of the Navy, and is called their agent by Samuel Bowman, Jr., and Jo. Yates, of Charleston, in their request to Governor Hardy, the same summer, for a similar authority.

His first mercantile advertisement may be seen in the New York Mercury of December 12, 1757, which sets forth that "HENRY WHITE has just imported from London and Bristol a neat assortment of goods fit for the season, which he will sell for ready money or short credit, at his store in King Street."

On the 13th May, 1761, according to the Record of New York Marriages, MR. WHITE formed an alliance with Eva Van Cortland, daughter of Frederick, and granddaughter of Jacobus Van Cortland. In her veins ran also the blood of the Philipse, another of the wealthiest and most important families of the Colony. This connection secured the fortune of MR. WHITE.

In 1762 he appears as the owner of the sloop Moro, 10 guns. All the vessels sent out from New York at this time were armed. The war with France, ended on land, still raged on the seas.

The following year, as appears from a notice in Weyman's Gazette of March 21, 1763, he made a voyage to England. A trip across the Atlantic was at this period an important matter. He announces himself as "intending for England about the end of April next," and invites those to whom he is indebted to call for their money.

While regularly pursuing his business with Great Britain, and at times making ventures to the neighboring colonies, he seems to have looked to political preferment.

In 1769, on the refusal of Mr. Delancey to take a seat at the Council Board, MR. WHITE made urgent application to the Governor for the vacant place. Governor Moore so informs the Earl of Hillsborough in his letter of 21 January, and seems to have supported the request, for on the 8th March following MR. WHITE received the Commission, and was sworn of the Council-a post which he retained during the remaining period of English rule in America.

Hitherto he had carried on his trade at his store on Cruger's Wharf, but now, his rising fortunes and new honors requiring more state, he changes his residence. Hugh Gaine's New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury of May 1, 1769, contains the advertisement that "HENRY WHITE has removed to the house of the late Treasurer, between the Fly market and the Coffee-House, where he has to sell the following articles, viz.: Nails of all sizes, Bohea and Congo Teas, 6 by 8, 7 by 9, and 8 by 10 Window Glass, English Sail Cloth, from No. 1 to 7, Russia do., writing paper, English cordage, Bristol Beer, blue duffils, spotted rugs, Newkirk and Dutch Ozenbrigs, Madeira Wine." The

late Treasurer here alluded to was Abraham De Peyster, one of the wealthiest of the City magnates, who died in 1767.

HENRY WHITE was one of the consignees of the tea the shipment of which caused great excitement on the American seaboard in the winter of 1773 to 1774. The East India Company, yielding to the urgent demands of Lord North, who had promised the King "to try the question with America," in the fall of 1773 despatched their consignments of the forbidden merchandise to all the chief coast cities from the Massachusetts Bay to the Carolinas. The ship for South Carolina had arrived at Charleston on the 2d December, 1773, and the consignees declining to receive the cargo, the duties were not paid, and the tea was left to rot in the cellar where it was stored. The three ships for Boston were boarded in the night of the 26th December, and their cargoes were emptied into the sea; the ship for Pennsylvania arrived at Chester on the 27th December, when the Philadelphians gathered in town meeting, and the captain was made to promise to return to London with ship and cargo the very next day.

Early advised by the Company of the shipment to New York, HENRY WHITE, with two of the other consignees, Abraham Lott and Benjamin Booth, addressed a memorial, Dec. 1st, 1773, to Governor Tryon for the protection of the

tea.

It was not until the 18th of April, 1774, that the Nancy reached the offing. Contrary winds had blown her off the coast, and she had put into Antigua. She was boarded by a Committee of Vigilance at Sandy Hook. Captain Lockyer, her master, was permitted to bring the ship to the city, but his men were not allowed to land.

According to the account given in Hugh Gaine's New

York Gazette of April 25th, 1774, “The Committee, early next morning, conducted Captain Lockyer to the house of the HON. HENRY WHITE, ESQ., one of the Consignees, and there informed Captain Lockyer that it was the sense of the Citizens that he should not presume to go near the Custom House, &c.". . . To this he answered, "That as the Consignees would not receive his cargo, he would not go to the Custom House, and would make all the dispatch he could to leave the city."

MR. WHITE was unyielding in his opinions, and at no period showed any sympathy with those who resisted the King's authority. In the summer of 1775, he was in correspondence with Governor Martin, of North Carolina. A letter from the Governor to his address, asking for the shipment of a marquee "with the royal standard," previously asked for, was intercepted and laid before the Committee of Safety. MR. WHITE does not appear to have fallen into the hands of the revolutionists. He probably left the city before stringent measures were adopted. In the summer of 1776, he is spoken of by Governor Tryon, in his account of the breaking up of the Council, as in England. He returned to his post when the British resumed control in the fall of the same year, probably with the army, as he was one of the signers of the loyal address to Lord Howe in October following. In 1777 he was appointed first of the committee of four to receive donations for equipment of provincial regiments for the King's service, and resided here during the war, acting as the agent of the Home Government in various ways-chiefly in the sale of captured vessels and cargoes, and the distribution of prize-money among the British vessels of war. One of many of his advertisements of this kind may be seen in Rivington's Royal Gazette of the 23d April, 1783, in

which he gives notice of a division of the "nett proceeds of the ship Tyger and cargo, condemned at Bermuda, and of the schooner Neptune and ship Vestal."

On the 9th October, 1780, he is said by Sabine to have appeared before the surrogate to prove the will of the unfortunate André, when he declared that he was "well acquainted with the testator's handwriting, and believed the instrument to be genuine."

He left the city and returned to England with the British on the evacuation in the fall of 1783.

His estates were among the earliest confiscated in 1779. An advertisement of sale by the Commissioners of Forfeitures, in Kollock's New York Gazette of May 23d, 1786, is curious as descriptive of a mansion of those days. This house was then in the occupation of George Clinton, the first Governor of the State of New York. "On Monday the 19th June, at the Merchants' Coffee House-That large and commodious House and Lot of Ground situated on the South Easterly side of Queen Street, in the East ward of the said City, now occupied by his Excellency the Governor; the house is three large stories high, and contains four large rooms with fire places on each floor, besides a convenient kitchen in the rear of and adjoining thereto : in the Yard is a large brick building calculated for a storehouse and coach-house with stables, also a well and cistern; the lot extends nearly through to Water Street, and has a spacious gangway for a carriage in the said street; its situation and conveniences are as well calculated for a merchant in extensive business as any in this city. The above premises were forfeited and vested in the People of this State by the attainder of HENRY WHITE, ESQ., late one of the Members of the Council of the late Colony of New York."