Born in South Carolina on May 27, 1821 to father Robert White Jr. brother of Sacred Harp co-compiler Benjamin Franklin White, Jesse Thomas White moved to Georgia as a young man. White married Caroline Penelope Eldridge, and moved west, first to Winston County, Mississippi, and then to Smith County, Texas. A farmer and innkeeper in Texas, White contributed ten songs to the first edition of The Sacred Harp, including “Edgefield.” He died on July 28, 1894.