Hugh White (d. 1827) was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who was ordained a Swedenborgian clergyman in 1812. He owned land in both Charlottesville and Milton (Carl Theophilus Odhner, Annals of The New Church, with a chronological account of the life of Emanuel Swedenborg [1904], 1:213, 229; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901 description ends , 178; Albemarle Co. Will Book, 9:15–6).

On 18 July 1812 White sent what was presumably the same variorum to President James Madison, whose brother he claimed to have tutored in 1775. White described the work to Madison as “a few of his meditations & mental discussions on subjects which in a greater or less extent have occupied the rational faculties of the human race since the origin of the world” (Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 29 vols.: Congress. Ser., 17 vols.; Pres. Ser., 5 vols.; Sec. of State Ser., 7 vols description ends , Pres. Ser., 5:46–7).