Robert White ( Virginia physician ) Robert White ( 1688 – 1752 ) was an early American physician , military officer , pioneer , and planter in the Colony of Virginia . White served as a surgeon in the Royal Navy prior to his arrival in the Thirteen Colonies . White was the progenitor of the White political family of Virginia and West Virginia . He was the father of Alexander White , United States House Representative and a member of the House of Burgesses and Virginia House of Delegates . Early life and education . Robert White was born in Scotland in 1688 . He was the son of John White , a physician practicing in Paisley , Renfrewshire who died in 1742 . White was of both Scottish and English origins , descending from Covenanter s , a Scottish Presbyterian movement during the 17th century . He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh and graduated with an M . D . degree from the institution . Royal Navy service . Following the completion of his education , White served as a surgeon with the rank of captain in the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Great Britain . While it is not for certain why White left his commission in the Royal Navy , White family tradition held that White resigned from the Royal Navy after he engaged in a duel with another officer . Arrival in America . White was the first member of his family to travel to and reside in America . Between 1720 and 1730 , White arrived in the British Colonies where he visited his relative William Hoge ( an ancestor of United States House of Representatives member John Blair Hoge ) residing in Delaware Colony . White fell in love with Hoge ' s eldest daughter Margaret and he married her in Delaware Colony . White ' s marriage to Margaret is likely the cause of his resignation from the Royal Navy . He and Margaret , along with her father William Hoge , relocated near York , Pennsylvania where White erected a residence he named " White Hall " after his family ' s ancestral home in Scotland . Settlement in Virginia . From York , White relocated between 1732 and 1735 as a " pioneer settler " to a stream along Great North Mountain near Winchester in Orange County , Virginia ( later included as part of Frederick County following its 1738 creation ) , where White established a plantation he also named " White Hall , " During this move to Virginia , White was accompanied by his elderly father - in - law William Hoge , who settled three miles south of Winchester on Opequon Creek . White was one of the earlier pioneer settlers of Frederick County . White and Hoge , along with other families , established the Opequon Meeting House , the oldest Presbyterian congregation formed west of the Blue Ridge Mountains . White " staked out " his farm between 1732 or 1735 consisting of along Hogue Creek south of the present - day unincorporated community of Hayfield , Virginia along U . S . Route 50 . White constructed the residence at his " White Hall " farm around 1732 , and it served as White ' s primary residence . White was one of two physicians practicing in Frederick County along with Daniel Hart ( died about 1748 ) . White practiced from his residence near Great North Mountain , and one of his more notable patients was Colonel James Wood , founder of Winchester , Virginia . White ' s son Alexander married Wood ' s daughter , Elizabeth Wood . White was part a larger wave of Scottish physicians that settled in Virginia prior to the American Revolutionary War . Later life and death . White died in 1752 at the age of 64 and was interred in the eastern corner of the Old Opequon Cemetery at the Opequon Presbyterian Church in Kernstown , three miles south of Winchester . By 1855 , White ' s burial site was located at a tree in the eastern corner of the cemetery and by 1891 , a tree still marked his gravesite in the churchyard . White was survived by his three sons , Robert , Alexander , and John , and his wife . His son , Robert White , inherited the " home farm " following White ' s death . Marriage and children . White married Margaret Hoge , the eldest daughter of White ' s relative William Hoge and his wife , Barbara Hume . White and his wife Margaret had three sons and at least two daughters :