Andrew White, SJ (1579 – December 27, 1656) was an English Jesuit Catholic missionary who was involved in the founding of the Maryland colony.

[1] A chronicler of Colonial Maryland, his writings remain a primary source on the land, the Native Americans and the Jesuit mission in North America.

He is considered a forefather of Georgetown University, and is memorialized in the White-Gravenor building Andrew White was born in London in 1579 to a Catholic family.

White requested permission from Superior General Mutio Vitelleschi, head of the Jesuit order, to organize a mission to the colonies.

In document dated February 10, 1633, White specifically advocates Catholic settlement in "lord Baltimore's Plantation in Mary-land".

[6][4] In July 1634, White finished his first writing on the new colony, titled A Relation of the Sucessefull Beginnings of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Maryland.

White said that his intentions towards the Native Americans was;"...not to make war, but out of good will towards them, in order to extend civilization and instruction to his ignorant race, and show them the way to heaven.

"[7] White spent most of the next decade in St. Mary's, working to convert Native American adults and children to Catholicism.

The beginning of the English Civil War in 1642, with its conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, ended White's mission in the Maryland Colony.

[2] When the Calvert family regained control of the Maryland Colony, White petitioned his Jesuit superiors to return there, but they denied his requests.

[4][2] In 1933, the architect and writer Christopher La Farge, for the upcoming Tricentenary, 300th Anniversary of the founding of Maryland, designed a monument to White that is located just outside St. Mary's City.