White was born in 1782 at Norton in Durham, a member of a family long resident in the county, was educated at Witton-le-Wear, and afterwards at Cambridge, where he graduated bachelor of medicine from Emmanuel College in 1804, having been admitted a pensioner on 18 May 1799.

He was apprenticed to Sir Anthony Carlisle, and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 2 September 1803.

White suffered severely from gout in his later years, and died at his house in Parliament Street on 9 March 1849.

As a surgeon he is remarkable because he was the first to excise the head of the femur for disease of the hip-joint, a proceeding then considered to be so heroic that Sir Anthony Carlisle and Sir William Blizard threatened to report him to the College of Surgeons.

His besetting sin was unpunctuality, and he often entirely forgot his appointments, yet he early acquired a large and lucrative practice.