2 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBOENE 



(Leges Edovardi) . . . give me leave to say that few families 

 have so antient or equitable a title to their possessions in 

 this island. They who came in with the ravaging Danes or 

 with the Norman invader certainly have not; and if the 

 early Saxons had committed any injustice in their first 

 establishment, it was before we migrated hither, for we had 

 the rare felicity to settle peaceably and to be admitted to 

 all the privileges of fellow-citizens with general content. 

 Where is the man, unless he can prove his descent from the 

 Armorici, who can make it appear that his ancestors gained 

 an establishment in this country on terms so respectable?* 



EiCARDUS Vitus Basinstockius.! 



It is true that the earlier Jutish colonies were 

 founded by emigrants, as contrasted with those of 

 the Angles, who came in a body as conquerors. 

 The name of White is a common one, especially 

 in Hampshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire, and this 

 points to the probable conclusion that it is in its 

 modern form a corruption of a tribal name. But 

 however this may be, leaving early history, it 

 appears from the Harleian MSS. that there were in 

 the late Middle Ages four considerable families of 

 that name established in Hampshire, who seem to 

 have been related both by descent and intermarriage. 



1. White of Swanborne, or South Warnborne. 



2. White of Basingstoke. 



3. White of Farnham. 



4. White of Aldershot. 



• ♦* Gentleman's Magazine," 1786, vol. Ivi. p. 17. 



t The reason of the adoption of this name appears infra p. 6. 



