WHITE, Joseph Blanco, was born at Seville in 1775. His grandfather, William White, was an Irishman, who settled at Seville, engaged in business, became a large exporting merchant, and was ultimately raised to the ranks of the nobility. Under his son, the house failed; but, after a temporary suspension, business was again resumed. The son married a lady of rank, descended from an old Andalusian family, and Blanco White was the issue of this marriage.
The youth, as soon as he was able to render any service, was taken into the counting-house; but he showed a strong disinclination to mercantile pursuits, and, at his own earnest request, he was sent to college and educated for the priesthood, to which he was regularly ordained in 1799. His new profession suited him no better than the mercantile life from which he had escaped; he disliked his clerical duties, and doubted the truth of the doctrines which he was required to teach. In 1814, he left his native country and repaired to London, where, shortly after his arrival, he established a monthly Spanish paper, which he conducted with much ability till the events of 1814 rendered it no longer necessary to continue it, when he received from the English government a pension of £250 per annum for life. About the same time, he renounced the Romish Church and joined the Church of England; but he never inquired long or deeply into any form of religious faith: his creed varied from year to year, and at last settled in something very like scepticism. He resided chiefly in London, but the last few years of his life were spent in Liverpool. He occupied himself mainly in literary pursuits, and was the author of several works, none of which have retained any permanent place in our literature. Among these may be mentioned:—Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism, 1825; Poor Man's Preservative against Popery, 1825; Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion, 2 vols., 1833. He also contributed to the Quarterly and Westminster Review, and wrote a series of "Letters from Spain," in the New Monthly Magazine, which were subsequently issued separately in 1822. His most interesting work, however, was an autobiography, which was published posthumously in 1845, in 3 vols. He died at Liverpool in 1841.