White, Joseph Blanco, 1775-1841
Variant namesEnglish theological writer.
From the description of Autograph letter signed : London, to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1826 Jun. 21. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270587779
Blanco White, José María (Seville, 1775 - Liverpool, 1841)
On arriving in Andalusia from Ireland, William White (father) changed his surname to Blanco White; that name was used interchangeably with Blanco y Crespo (surnames of his parents) by the author (son). José María Blanco White was one of the leading writers of Spanish Romanticism and also a controversial figure because of the political and religious positions he assumed throughout his life. His religious conviction changed from Catholicism to a Christian faith without a church. This last professed faith he described when dying as one that “theologues don't understand.”
During his life in Spain he held various religious positions: as a priest, as rector in the Colégio Mayor, and as magistrado de la Capilla Real de San Fernando in the Cathedral of Sevilla (1804). Nominated Preceptor of the Infante Don Francisco de Paula, he held the post for only a short period because he lost the favor of Prime Minister Godoy. As editor of Elsemanário patriotico (1808-1809) he inflated articles in favor of the independence of Spain and on the corruption of the court. As a result he was considered “persona non grata” by the Junta Suprema de España Indias and emigrated to England, where he arrived March 3, 1810.
He founded El Español (London, 1810-1813) to crusade against Spanish colonialism, though he continually stated in its pages that “America would never rebel if the ill administration of the mother country wouldn't compel them.”
In 1822 his successful book Letters from Spain appeared under the pen name Don Leucádio Dolblado. This book established his reputation in England, where he was befriended by Southey, Lord Holland, J. S. Mill and Mrs. Hemans.
In 1826 having received a M.A. degree from Oxford University for literary and economic reasons, he left London for Oxford. While living in Oxford, Blanco defected in 1835 from the Anglican church, he settled in Liverpool in the 1830's and there became a Unitarian. During this period he published his famous Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy (London, J. Mardon, 1835) which tried to explain his doubts and faith.
The London Review requested him to prepare a series of articles about literary figures--a commission he accepted. Between 1835-36 he wrote about Martínez de la Rosa, Crabble, Guizot, Lamb, and Godoy. In 1839 (for no apparent reason) he resumed writing in Spanish, poetry and the unfinished novel Luísa de Bustamante published in Revista de Ciencias literatura y artes by D. José Blanco-White y Olloqui (his nephew). In 1840 he resumed writing in English, producing the work “Plain Dialogues on Religion” published after his death as Plain Dialogues on Religion by the Author of the Poor Man's Preservative against Popery. In February 1841, paralyzed and unable to write, he was transported to Greenbank, the Liverpool house of his friend William Rathbone, where he died on 20 May 1841.
Notes on the Blanco White Family Tree
Don Guillermo White y Nangle and his two brothers Thomas and Pablo were the first ones from the White family for Durbin and Waterford, Ireland, to move to Sevilla, Spain, in the beginning of the 18th century.
Tomas Cahill became partner of Don Guillermo Blanco White y Morrogh in 1786.
In 1802 Lucas Beck, Doña María Fernanda White, Cahill's widow in her name and her daughter's name and Don Guillermo White formed a new business company. Later Don Lucas Beck married D. María Cahill y White.
Don Guillermo Blanco (alas White y Morrogh) following the death of Tomás Cahill moved to Alcala in 1800 to escape the yellow fever plague, leaving Lucas Beck in charge of the business firm.
The uncle of Doña Gertrudis Crespo y Neve was Don Felipe de Neve Noguera Castro y Figueroa, governor of California and the founder of its city of Los Angeles.
Don Fernando Blanco White was the legitimized son of Don José María Blanco White and Magdalena Esquaya. Educated in England by his father, he later became an officer in the Indies.
Dona Ana Gabriela White y Morrogh was known in the family as “Tia Anica.”
From the guide to the Blanco White Family Collection, 1713-1930, 1798-1841, (Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections)
Epithet: of Add MS 34570
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001152.0x00003e
Epithet: Reverend; theologian
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001152.0x000041
Epithet: Reverend
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001152.0x000040
Epithet: of Add MS 39168
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001152.0x00003f
Blanco White was born in Seville, Spain. He had Irish ancestry and was the son of the merchant Guillermo Blanco (alias White, an English viceconsul, who had established himself in Seville during the reign of Fernando VI) and María Gertrudis Crespo y Neve.
Blanco White was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood. In Seville, Spain, he had worked with Melchor de Jovellanos, an adviser to the king who advocated reform. After his ordination in 1800, White's religious doubts led him to leave Spain and go to England in 1810. There he ultimately entered the Anglican Church, having studied theology at Oxford and made the friendship of Thomas Arnold, John Henry Newman the Reverend E.T. Daniell and Richard Whately. He became tutor in Whately's family when Whately became the Archbishop of Dublin in 1831. While in this position White embraced Unitarian views. He found asylum amongst the Unitarians of Liverpool, and he died in the city on 20 May 1841.
Blanco White edited El Español, a monthly Spanish magazine in London, from 1810 to 1814, which was strongly for the independence of Spanish America. In its pages, he commented on the course of the insurgency based on information from Spanish America and British sources. The Regency banned it in Spain, since it undermined the pro-Cádiz position on trade, which gave peninsular merchants a monopoly on trade. Juan Bautista Arriaza published a pamphlet against him in London and suffered other attacks in the Cádiz newspapers; even in the Cortes of Cádiz, in his session of 24 May 1811, he was attacked. Articles in El Español were reprinted in the insurgent press. He was not for complete independence for Spanish America, but rather a moderate position. He advocated that the Spanish Cortes (parliament) recognize juntas in Spanish America that remained loyal to the Spanish monarchy after the Napoleon's 1808 invasion of Spain and ouster of Bourbon monarch Ferdinand VII and Napoleon's placement of his brother Joseph on the throne. He also was in favor of free trade, not just the closed Spanish system of comercio libre that allowed free trade ports in Spain with Spanish America and all ports within Spanish America.
His other principal writings include Doblado's Letters from Spain (1822) (under the pseudonym of "Don Leucado Doblado", and written in part at Holland House in London), Evidence against Catholicism (1825), Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion (2 vols., 1834) and Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy (1835). They all show literary ability and were extensively read in their day. He also translated Paley's Evidences and the Book of Common Prayer into Spanish.
White is also remembered for his sonnet "Night and Death" ("Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew"), which was dedicated to Samuel Taylor Coleridge on its appearance in the Bijou for 1828 and has since found its way into several anthologies. Three versions are given in the Academy of 12 September 1891.
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Person
Birth 1775-07-11
Death 1841-05-20
Active 1822
Active 1835
Birth 1775-07-11
Death 1841-05-20
Male
Spaniards
English,
English,
Spanish; Castilian,
Spanish; Castilian
