Nicholas White

Sir Nicholas White (c.1532 – 1592) (or Whyte) was an Irish lawyer and government official during the reign of Elizabeth I.

White was descended from a noted family of The Pale. His father, James White of Waterford, who was the steward of the earl of Ormond, had been poisoned while in London, as was the earl, in 1546. Nicholas owed his early advancement to Ormond's influence: in recognition of James's loyalty, the earl left £10 for the boy's education at the Inns of Court. White entered Lincoln's Inn in 1552, and he was called to the Bar in 1558; during the course of his studies he was a tutor to the children of Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley. He then returned to Ireland and was elected a member of the Irish Parliament for Kilkenny County in 1559. He was justice of the peace for County Kilkenny in 1563 and in the following year was named recorder of Waterford. In 1567 he bought Leixlip Castle as his base near Dublin.

He had stayed in correspondence with Cecil, and became an important confidant of his and thus an influential commentator on Irish affairs. In 1568 he was given the right to travel to England and had a notable interview with Mary, Queen of Scots, at Tutbury in February 1569. White may have published an English translation of the Argonautica in the 1560s, but no copy has survived.

On 4 November 1568 Elizabeth appointed him seneschal of Wexford and constable of Leighlin and Ferns, replacing the disgraced adventurer Thomas Stukley. He retained the office until 1572, concluding his tenure with the pursuit of the rebels, led by Fiach McHugh O'Byrne, who had murdered his son-in-law Robert Browne.

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