INTRODUCTION

BIOGRAPHICAL

I. 1588-1622

THE home of the Withers from the time of Edward III. was at Manydown, near Wootton St. Lawrence in Hampshire, where in 1338 there existed a Manor House.1 From papers long in the possession of the family-manor rolls, accounts, etc.-Dean G. W. Kitchin has compiled, for the Hampshire Record Society, a volume concerning this manor. Herein we find, dated 1338,

In toto gardino de Manidoune
falcando, spargendo, et levando

ijs.

The manor contained then, as it still contains, some fine timber; for early in the fifteenth century William of Wykeham made use of it to reconstruct the nave of his Cathedral Church at Winchester, and in 1459 three huge oaks from Manydown were sent to the

1 There still remains a red-brick four-sided court, two storeys high originally; the house has been added to by succeeding generations.

Prior of St. Swithun's for the roof of the great hall of the Priory, which still remains the chief part of the Deanery; the oak timbers are to be seen to this day.

A pedigree of the family of Wither, given in the Visitation Book of Hampshire (Harl. MS. 1473, f. 189), begins with a certain "Thomas Wither, of the County of Lancaster, Esquire." He had three sons, Thomas, Richard of Hunstarton in Cheshire, and Robert, who came to Manydown. There is a pedigree of the descendants of Richard of Hunstarton, including George Wither the Archdeacon of Colchester, in Harl. MS. 1541, f. 161. Robert's son Thomas of Manydown married Joan, daughter of Richard Mason of Sydmonton; their sons were John of Manydown, who married Ann (or Agnes), daughter of John Ayleffe of Skenes,1 Thomas, and Richard of Sydmonton. The sons of John and Ann Wither were John, who appears to have been disinherited, Richard of Manydown, William, and George, who married Avelyn, daughter of John Shank, and became the father of numerous children.

Richard of Manydown, the grandfather of the poet, married Margaret, daughter of William Poynter of Whitchurch. For the subsequent generations, see pedigree on p. xv.

The poet's mother was said by Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges to be a certain Ann Searle. I have not traced this information beyond him, and I conclude he obtained

1 On a tombstone in Wootton St. Lawrence Church the name is given as Ayliffe of Skyres.

George

it from the register at Wootton St. Lawrence, where the marriage of "Georgius Wither with Anna Serle" is recorded. If he did so, he was careless, for the date of that marriage is "12th Feb. 1604," some sixteen years after the poet was born. Searle is a Hampshire name, and Anne Searle not an uncommon combination. In 1641 another George Wither (of Winchester) married another Anne Searle. Again, Ann, sister to Joan wife of John Wither (see pedigree) married Roger Searle of Odiham (Harl. MS. 1473). In any case the Wootton St. Lawrence marriage is a puzzle; it may have been the second marriage1 of the poet's father, or it may have been another George altogether.

By the will of George Wither the elder it is proved that the Christian name of the poet's mother was Mary.2 And in 1661, Wither himself writes, in A Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer,

"The families from whom I was designed

To take my being, Thou hast now twice joined,
And their two surnames, being joined together,
Denominate my grandson Hunt L'Wither."

I conclude from these two statements that the poet's mother was a Mary Hunt; his son Robert married "Elizabeth, daughter of John Hunt of Fidding," and so "twice joined" the families Hunt and Wither. "Fidding," now Theddon, is a splendid grange,

1 Anthony-à-Wood records that the poet was "the first son by a second venter"; he may have known that the elder George Wither did marry twice, but inverted the order.

2 The will was discovered by the Rev. R. F. Bigg-Wither in the Registry at Winchester. See Appendix C for a copy of it.