Daniel Appleton White
Daniel Appleton White was an American statesman, lawyer, and Judge of Probate in Essex County, Massachusetts during the nineteenth century. He was elected as a member of the Massachusetts Senate and later elected to Congress but he resigned from the position to become the Judge of Probate for Essex County—a position he held for 38 years. As well as making a successful political and legal career in his own right, Daniel White is a descendant of William White, who settled in Massachusetts in 1635 and was a founding father of Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1640.
Early life and family
Birth
Daniel White was born on 7 June 1776 in Methuen, Massachusetts to John and Elizabeth White.Education
He graduated with a law degree in Harvard University in 1797. In 1837, some 40 years after he first graduated from Harvard, the university awarded him the Honorary Doctorate of LLD in recognition of his achievements in the field.Family
White married three times altogether. He married his first wife, Mary van Schalkwyck, on 24 May 1807 and had two daughters with him. Some years after van Schalkwyck's death on 29 June 1811, White married Eliza Wetmore on 1 August 1819 in Salem.Like his White's first wife, Wetmore died very soon after marrying him. White was made a widower for the second time after Eliza's death on 27 March 1821. Before her death, though, White and Wetmore had a son together named Henry. White's third and final wife was Ruth Rogers whom he married on 24 January 1824. White and Rogers remained married until White's death in March 1861.