Gideon White

Who was Gideon White?

Gideon White was a merchant, judge and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented Barrington township in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1790 to 1793.

He was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of Captain Gideon White and Joanna Howland, both descendents of the Pilgrims. White was in Nova Scotia in 1776. In September that same year, he was captured by an American privateer and taken back to Massachusetts where he was placed under house arrest. White went to Liverpool, Nova Scotia in the winter of the following year. After trading in the Caribbean, he established himself as a merchant in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1782, he went to New York City and served as a captain in the Duke of Cumberland's Regiment. White settled at Shelburne, Nova Scotia with other members of that retired regiment in 1784, retiring on half pay from his military service. He served as a justice of the peace for Halifax County and then Shelburne County, also serving as custos rotulorum, major in the militia, customs collector, justice in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and as commissioner of bridges and roads. In 1787, he married Deborah Whitworth. He was elected to the assembly in a 1790 by-election held after Joseph Aplin left the province. White died in Shelburne at the age of 80.