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Phineas White

American politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ2088366
Source-derived summary

Phineas White (October 30, 1770 – July 6, 1847) was an American lawyer and politician. He served one term as United States Representative from Vermont from 1821 to 1823.

Biography

White was born in South Hadley in the Province of Massachusetts Bay to Deacon Enoch White and Esther Stevens. He graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1797.

Legal career

He studied law with Charles Marsh of Woodstock, Vermont and Judge Samuel Porter of Dummerston, Vermont. He was admitted to the bar in 1800 and commenced practice in Pomfret. White married Elizabeth Stevens on July 5, 1801.

He was Register of Probate for Windsor County from 1800 to 1809, postmaster of Putney from 1802 to 1809 and county attorney in 1813.

White served as judge of Windham County in 1814, 1815 and 1817, and was chief judge from 1818 to 1820. White was probate judge of the Westminster district from 1814 to 1815.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Phineas White” is american politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Phineas, White and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1770, 1847, 1821, 1823—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1770-10-30. For this dossier, Phineas, White and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2088366. VIAF identifies the subject as 96913213. The Library of Congress control number is no2009135630. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1770, 1847, 1821 and 1823.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Phineas White”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Phineas White primary sources, Phineas White archive and Phineas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Phineas White”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Phineas White” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.