I was minding my own business when I got an email from Germany from one Jochen Froelich. Seems that 30 years ago he went to a flea market, to a bookstall, and bought two old commentaries by Martin Luther which were translated into English in 1635 and 1637 (the one on the Psalms being the later one). Mr. Froelich decided to do a Google search on the Witherington name and came up with me. He wrote to ask if my family has a history of being Bible commentators. Not to my knowledge I replied, but these inscriptions on the frontispieces and last page of these commentaries are very interesting (see above).
They refer to one William Witherington, who apparently bought these commentaries as a legacy for his son Witherton Witherington (what a name). Since the commentaries were published in London and are in English we may assume he bought them in England. How they finally ended up at the Frankfurt flea market in the 1980s is a matter for Sherlock Holmes to decipher. In any case, it would appear that we are dealing with some of my ancestors since Witherington is a very rare English name indeed. These commentaries came out over a century before Bonnie Prince Charlie was our royal of choice, which choice led to various Witheringtons fleeing to America and Europe when he came to a ‘bad’ dead end. One wonders if this gentlemen was someone who lived in Witherington castle in Northumberland in the 17th century.
In any case Danke schon to Herr Froelich for sending the information, and maybe Bible commentating is in my blood after all 🙂 BW3
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