Elder brother of Henry Kirke White. He was called by his second name, 'Neville'. Southey greatly admired him and the two men became regular correspondents. He initially trained as a medical student in London, but then became a hosiery merchant. In the latter capacity he was able to help Southey acquire books and newspapers from South America for his work on the Edinburgh Annual Register (1810–13) and the History of Brazil (1810–19). He then gave up his business, decided to become a clergyman, and in 1820 married Charlotte Sewell (1799–1873), the daughter of Joseph Sewell (1772–1844), a wealthy Norwich solicitor. White obtained a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Cambridge (1829) and became a clergyman in Norfolk, serving as Perpetual Curate of Great Plumstead from 1822, before his father-in-law, as patron, appointed him to the living at Rushall 1828–32. White then moved on to be Rector of Tivetshall 1832–45. His marriage to Charlotte Sewell produced ten children. One of his sons, Herbert Southey White (1830–63; he succeeded his uncle, Thomas Mack, as Vicar of Tunstead 1858–63), married a granddaughter of Southey’s, Edith Frances Warter (1837–63), so uniting the two families. Another son, James Sewell White (1827–1912), a barrister, inherited the Sloley estate in Norfolk from his uncle, James White, but only on condition that he changed his surname to ‘Neville’.