The subject of this memoir descended from an ancient and honorable West
of England family, noted for six generations for its military
predilections. The first Anthony of whom we have particulars was a
zealous partisan of Charles I., and left England for Virginia after the
establishment of the Commonwealth; but, stopping at Bermuda, decided to
remain there, where he became a member of the Government. The second
Anthony returned to England and under William III. became a
lieutenant-colonel and served at the battle of the Boyne. In reward for
services, he was appointed a member of the King’s council, and Chief
Justice of the Bermudas; an office which descended to his eldest son,
Leonard, who entered the British Navy and served with distinction. The
third Anthony, Leonard’s eldest son, came to New York about 1715,
married a Miss Staats, and died soon afterwards, on the voyage to
Bermuda. His only son, Anthony (IV.), after holding various civil
offices in the State of New Jersey, entered the army and was a
lieutenant-colonel in 1751. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Lewis
Morris, governor of New Jersey, by whom he had the subject of our
sketch, Anthony, the fifth of the name—his middle name coming from his
godfather, the celebrated William Walton, of the “Walton House,” in the
present Franklin Square, New York City. Anthony was born July 7, 1750,
at the family residence near New Brunswick, N. J.
The family aptitude for officeholding secured him, in due time, several
posts of honor and profit under the Crown, and up to the outbreak of the
Revolution he pursued the ordinary routine life of a country gentleman
of large property; when the hereditary love of arms, and a sincere
attachment to the cause of country, transformed him into the ardent
patriot. In October, 1775, he was appointed an aide to Washington,[8]
and in February, 1776, became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Third N. J.
Battalion. In this capacity he was actively engaged in service at the
North until 1780, when he was transferred to the First Regiment of
Cavalry, and ordered South, to assume general command of the cavalry in
that department.
In July, 1780, despairing of receiving the promised aid from the State
of Virginia, and anxious to join the army under Gates, then in South
Carolina, Colonel White procured on his own personal credit, the funds
necessary to remount and support for a short time, two regiments; with
which he marched to join Gates—fortunately too late to share in the
defeat at Camden (and yet, that same rout might have been a victory, had
a sufficient force of cavalry been among Gates’ men). In 1781, White was
ordered to Virginia to coöperate with Lafayette’s force against
Cornwallis, and several times skirmished with Tarleton. In the winter of
1781–2, he was again in the Carolinas, opposed to him; and in the
operations of Wayne at Savannah, May 21, 1782, Colonel White by his bold
and adroit conduct, contributed largely to the success which followed.
After the evacuation of the city by the enemy, he returned to South
Carolina, and entered Charleston, where his noted generosity was
exemplified by his becoming security for the debts of the officers and
men of his command, who were in want of almost all the necessaries of
life.
They agreed to repay him in tobacco—then the only currency of any stable
value—which was to be delivered to him at Charleston on a fixed date.
Owing partly to the failure of the crop that year, and partly to the
inability of his beneficiaries to carry out their part of the agreement,
he had to part with a large part of his Northern property, at a ruinous
sacrifice. In the spring of 1783, he was married to Margaret Ellis, a
young girl of only fifteen, but who is described as of remarkable
accomplishments, as well as of wealth and beauty. After the conclusion
of hostilities, he returned to the North and settled in New York City to
spend the remainder of his life, as he hoped, in tranquil enjoyment of
well-earned repose, and regain his former affluence; but was unhappily
persuaded by his old army friends to join them in a speculation which,
as the only responsible member of the organization, nearly ruined him as
a result.
In 1793 he removed from New York to his native New Brunswick, where he
spent the rest of his life. He was destined, however, to be once more
called to arms; being appointed by Washington, in 1794, to command the
cavalry in the expedition under Henry Lee, against the Western
insurgents; in the delicate management of which duty, he not only won
the esteem and gratitude of the inhabitants of the region which was the
scene of the insurrection, but the gratitude even of the prisoners whom
he was obliged to take to Philadelphia. He then petitioned Congress for
repayment of the large sums he had advanced to the State of Virginia—but
unsuccessfully; and though his last years were clouded by the loss of
almost all the wealth which was once his, he endured the reverses of
fortune with the courage of an ancient Roman. His homestead at New
Brunswick was frequently the resort of the leading men of the day—and
Kosciuszko was there nursed through a severe sickness, by the
unremitting care of Mrs. White and her daughter, which he gratefully
acknowledged, in letters still owned by the great-granddaughter of
General (as he became) White, Miss Bellita Evans of New Brunswick.
General White was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati,[9] his
insignia of which is now owned by his descendant, Mr. Anthony Walton
White Evans.[10]
General White’s grave, in the cemetery of Christ Church, New Brunswick,
is inscribed:
BRIG. GEN. ANTHONY WALTON WHITE,
_who departed this life
on the 10th of February, 1803
in the 53d year of his age,
Rests beneath this monumental stone_.
_He was an affectionate husband, a tender parent, a sincere and
generous friend, a zealous and inflexible Patriot and a faithful,
active and gallant officer in the Army of the United States during the
Revolutionary War._