John Blake White

Background

John Blake White was born on September 2, 1781 near Eutaw Springs, S. C. , the son of Blake Leay and Elizabeth (Bourquin) White. He was a descendant of John White who emigrated from Ireland to New England, probably about 1681.

Education

White began the study of law in Columbia, S. C. , but in 1800 went to London to study painting under Benjamin West.

Career

On his return to America in November 1803, he made an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself as an artist, first in Charleston, then in Boston (1804). In November 1804 he returned to Charleston, where he resumed his legal studies and in 1808 was admitted to the bar. With the exception of a short period about 1831, when he lived at Columbia, he remained in Charleston for the rest of his life. Continuing his painting in addition to practising law, he produced between 1804 and 1840 a number of historical pictures and portraits. Among the best known of the former are four in the Capitol at Washington: "Battle of Fort Moultrie, " "Mrs. Motte Directing Marion and Lee to Burn Her Mansion to Dislodge the British, " "General Marion Inviting a British Officer to Dinner, " and "Sargents Jasper and Newton Rescuing American Prisoners from the British. " Large steel engravings were made of the last two, which were also engraved respectively for the ten and five dollar banknotes issued by South Carolina in 1861. Other paintings by White of which record is preserved are "Battle of Eutaw Springs, " "Battle of New Orleans, " "Minister Poinsett Unfurling the United States Flag in the City of Mexico during the Mexican Riots, " "The Arrival of the Mail, " showing the old post office building, Broad Street, Charleston (now in the City Hall, Charleston). His "Grave Robbers" was exhibited in the Boston Athenaeum in 1833 and described in a catalogue issued at that time. A portrait bust of White by Clark Mills is in the City Hall, Charleston, S. C. An engraved portrait is in the possession of the White family.

Achievements

• In 1840 he received from the South Carolina Institute a gold medal for the best historical painting. Among his most important portraits are those of John C. Calhoun, still in the possession of the Calhoun family, Charles C. Pinckney, Keating Simons, and Gov. Henry Middleton. He also painted miniatures, one of which is in the possession of descendants living in Charleston. In addition, he wrote a number of plays that were acted in the theatres of Charleston and other cities. Among these were Foscari, or the Venetian Exile (1806), The Mysteries of the Castle (1807), Modern Honor (1812), The Triumph of Liberty, or Louisiana Preserved (1819), which is said to have been enacted in the theatre of Petersburg, Va. , Intemperance (1839), and The Forgers: A Dramatic Poem (1899), first printed in the Southern Literary Journal, March 1837.

Connections

White was married twice. His first wife, whom he met in Boston, was Elizabeth Allston, a relative of Washington Allston. They were married in Georgetown, S. C. , on March 28, 1805, and had three sons and a daughter. After his first wife's death (1817), he was married on October 2, 1819, to Ann Rachel, daughter of Dr. Matthew O'Driscoll who emigrated from Ireland to South Carolina in 1794. By his second wife (d. 1849) White had five sons and two daughters.

Father:

Blake Leay White

Mother:

Elizabeth (Bourquin) White

Spouse:

Elizabeth Allston

Spouse:

Ann Rachel

Son:

Edward Brickell

He was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, and a prominent architect and engineer.