White, bishop of Peterborough, a learned antiquarian, historian, and theological writer, was born at Dover in 1660. Educated at Westminster School, and afterwards at Oxford, he became at an early age rector of Amersden, with a prebend in the church of Peterborough. In 1691 he returned to Oxford as tutor and vice-principal of Edmund Hall, where, among other pupils, he numbered the famous antiquary Hearne. In 1700 he resigned Amersden, and removed to London, where he was presented with the living of St Botolph, Aldgate. In the following year he was made Archdeacon of Huntingdon; and at a later period, Dean of Peterborough. In 1718 he received, as his last preferment, the bishopric of Peterborough, which he retained till his death in 1728. Two years after his death a detailed biography of him was published by the Rev. W. Newton, rector of Wingham in Kent.

According to his biographer's account, Kennett was a man of great mental activity, "of incredible diligence and application, not only in his youth, but to the very last." Besides his published works, which amply confirm this testimony, his autograph MSS., now preserved in the British Museum, furnish decisive proof. In the religious controversies of the day he took a keen and active part; indeed, his biographer admits that his party zeal was carried to excess. Identifying himself with the Low Church party, he opposed the Sacheverell movement with all his might, and afterwards, when the Bangorian controversy broke out, he being at that time dean of Peterborough, fought with so much ardour on Hoadley's side, that he believed his chances of Kennicott's church preferment to be totally ruined. His zeal in these and other disputes, sharpened by a strong temper and strong passions, raised many bitter enemies against him, by whom he was sometimes very roughly handled. A colour was given to the outcry against him, from his having been thought in early life to have had High Church leanings. His funeral sermon on the first Duke of Devonshire, in which he was charged with having sacrificed some of the fundamental points of religion to his own ambition, was also brought up against him; but he was too useful and too able a controversialist to be given up by his party.

Kennett's principal works are his Parochial Antiquities attempted in the History of Ambrosden, Burcester, and other adjacent parishes in the counties of Oxford and Bucks, 1695, 4to. In 1706 appeared a Compleat History of England, 3 vols. fol. The third of these, bringing down the narrative from Charles I. to Queen Anne, was written by Kennett. In 1698 he had published an edition of Sir Henry Spelman's History and Fate of Sacerlge, which six years later he followed up with his own Case of Impropriation, and of the Augmentation of Vicarages, &c., a department of church administration which he had much at heart. His other works were for the most part occasional sermons, and controversial pamphlets. The value of most of these fell with the occasion which called them forth, and they are now interesting only to the antiquary.