Sir John White

From the times of Edward I to those of Henry VIII, when the male line became extinct and the estate passed, by the marriage of the heiress to the Harpurs, the house of Finderne was one of the most distinguished in Derbyshire.

Their territorial possessions were large as the Findernes were High Sheriffs, and were occasionally rangers of Needwood Forest, and also custodians of Tutbury Castle.

In his times the execution of the Queen of Scots, the dispersal of the Armada, the Gunpowder Plot, the discoveries of Galileo, the assassination of Henry IV of France, and the Puritan colonisation of New England took place.

Lady White erected, in the family burial place in Tuxford church, " a fair tomb" of alabaster, in memory of her husband, leaving a space in the inscription for the date of her own death which has never been inserted.

Which roughly translates to: "Here lies John White, soldier, son and heir of Thomas White, Esquire, servant of Philip and Mary, king and queen of England and Agnes Cecill sister of William Cecill Baron of Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England, John died on Christmas Day of 1625.

In the years 1633, 1634 and 1637, Lady White made a deed of gift of various lands in Arnall, Nottinghamshire, to her cousin-german George Pierrepoint, "out of great affection" (she writes) "to him and his father."

He was the fourth son of her uncle Robert Pierrepoint, Earl of Kingston, who says a historian, "was not more distinguished for his ample fortune than for the endowment of his mind."

The Pierrepoints trace from Robert de Perpont, who came to England with the Normans, held lands in Sussex under the famous Earl Warren.

Richard, of Calke, brother of the head of the house, was knighted by the King, and annalists have left descriptions of the many dinners and entertainments held at the Harpur seats.