Daniel Appleton White.
Author/Artist
Frothingham, James, 1786-1864. Frick Digital Collections.

Hon. Daniel Appleton White, for thirty-eight years judge of probate for Essex County, was born in Methuen, on ground now at the heart of the present city of Lawrence, June 7, 1776. He was the sixth son and eleventh child of John White, a gentleman farmer of that day, and was descended in the sixth generation from William White, one of the founders of Newbury and, in 1640, one of the original grantees of Haverhill, his mother being Elizabeth, daughter
of Joseph Haynes.

Of strong political convictions as a Federalist, he became prominent in that party in Massachusetts during the
administrations of Jefferson and Madison, being a member of the State Senate from 1810 to 1815, and taking a leading part in public affairs, and in November, 1814, being nominated for Congress as the Federal candidate in the Essex North District, he was elected by a nearly unanimous vote.

Then the offer by Governor Strong of the office of judge of probate for the county of Essex altered the course of
his life. He accepted this position, and resigned his commission as Representative in the spring of 1815.

He had married Mrs. Mary Van Schalkwyck, daughter of Dr. Josiah Wilder, of Lancaster, May 24, 1807. whose early death, June 29, 1811, had left him with two young daughters.
He had married, August 1, 1819, Mrs. Eliza Wetmore, daughter of William Orne, Esq., a prominent merchant, whose early death, March 27, 1821, again darkened his domestic happiness.
His subsequent marriage, January 22, 1824, to Mrs. Ruth Rogers, daughter of Joseph Hurd, Esq., of Charlestown, placed once more at the head of his home a refined and charming lady, who shared and graced its hospitalities, surviving him to die Nov. 28, 1874, at the age of more than ninety years.

The two daughters of Judge White by his first marriage were married to Hon. William Dwight, of Springfield, and Hon. Caleb Foote, of Salem, while two sons survived him, the children of his second and third marriages,- Rev. William Orne White and Dr. Henry Orne White. All of these children have descendants.

"History of Essex County, Massachusetts", by Duane Hamilton Hurd, Published 1888, page xxv.