Phineas White


Phineas White was an American lawyer and politician. He served one term as United States Representative from Vermont from 1821 to 1823.

Biography

White was born in South Hadley in the Province of Massachusetts Bay to Deacon Enoch White and Esther Stevens. He graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1797.

Legal career

He studied law with Charles Marsh of Woodstock, Vermont and Judge Samuel Porter of Dummerston, Vermont. He was admitted to the bar in 1800 and commenced practice in Pomfret. White married Elizabeth Stevens on July 5, 1801.
He was Register of Probate for Windsor County from 1800 to 1809, postmaster of Putney from 1802 to 1809 and county attorney in 1813.
White served as judge of Windham County in 1814, 1815 and 1817, and was chief judge from 1818 to 1820. White was probate judge of the Westminster district from 1814 to 1815.
White was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1814 and served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1815 to 1820.

Congress

He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventeenth Congress, and served from March 4, 1821 to March 3, 1823. White was again a member of the state constitutional convention in 1836 and also served in the Vermont Senate in 1836 and 1837.

Affiliations

White served as a trustee of Middlebury College, President of the Vermont Bible Society, and President of the Vermont Colonization Society. He belonged to the Masonic Order and was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Vermont.

Death

White died on July 6, 1847, in Putney, Vermont and was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery.