[7][8] White was appointed Governor of East Florida in the spring of 1796, and arrived in its capital, Saint Augustine, on June 5.
White was very strict in granting the concession of lands from the public domain, and often enforced the laws more rigorously than the legal code itself would allow.
[14] Officials in Georgia's Camden County corresponded with White whenever American fugitives crossed the southern border fleeing the law.
[15] White fell ill in 1800, and was temporarily replaced by Lt. Col. Bartolomé Morales, who had previously served as acting governor of East Florida (March 1796 - June 1796), accompanied by Gonzalo Zamorano, Commissary of the army and accountant of the royal finance.
In 1811, White officially named a town on Amelia Island "Fernandina," in honor of the Catholic monarch Ferdinand VII of Spain.