 Born in 1833 in Romney, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), White was the son of Hampshire County Court Clerk John Baker White and his second wife, Frances Ann Streit White.He was educated at the Romney Classical Institute, worked in his father's clerking office for six years, and studied jurisprudence under John White Brockenbrough at his Lexington Law School.White was admitted to the bar in 1854 and practiced law in Romney.