Edward and Mary Withers

Mary Withers (fl. 1759-63) and Edward Withers (fl. 1736-58) were printers and booksellers at the Seven Stars, Fleet Street. During his career, Edward Withers appeared on more than 120 imprints; after his death, his wife, Mary, continued the business, appearing on an additional 33 imprints as “M. Withers.” The writers with whom they worked were exclusively Evangelical Anglican clergy, not dissenters, but these evangelical ministers were all moderate Calvinists and very popular with the Calvinist among the Baptists, Independents, and Moravians. William Romaine, who preached between 1748 and 1756 at St. George, Botolph Lane and St. George’s, Hanover Square, as well as at St. Dunstan’s, Fleet Street, in 1749, was among the most popular of these ministers (Augustus Toplady, John Newton, and Thomas Scott would be three others).  In 1756 Romaine became the morning preacher at St. Olave’s, Soutwark, and in 1766 Rector of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe, retaining that position until his death in 1795. More than 50 imprints by Romaine (14 separate titles, but not his most famous titles, The Life, the Walk, and the Triumph of Faith) were sold by either Edward or Mary Withers between 1754 and 1763, during Romaine’s time at St. Dunstan’s and at St. Olave’s.  Most of his titles during that time were printed for J. Worrall, at the Dove in Bell-Yard, near Lincoln’s-Inn and sold by Mary and Edward Withers. They apparently were heavily invested in Romaine and most likely were attendants at St. Olive’s in Southwark or one of Romaine’s other preaching locations. In 1791-92, Martha Lewis Trapp would become a hearer under Romaine during the interval between her departure from the Moravian congregation in Fetter Lane and her marriage to Timothy Priestley in 1794. Like the Withers and her mother, Mary Lewis, Martha Trapp would also print and sell titles by Romaine (seven between 1792 and 1796).

The 17 imprints of works by William Romaine were all published exclusively for J. Worrall in Bell-Yard and Mary Withers at the Seven Stars in near Chancery Lane, Fleet Street. On the remaining sixteen imprints, Withers appeared as a seller on four publications with George Keith, the Particular Baptist and attendant at that time at Carter Lane under John Gill, and on four with Mary Lewis, the Moravian printer/seller at 1 Paternoster Row. Withers also appeared on six imprints with Edward Dilly, a member of the Independent congregation in New Broad Street whose business was located at the Rose and Crown in the Poultry.  For William Mason’s  Antinomian heresy exploded, a tract critical of the teachings of James Relly, the sellers included Lewis, Keith, Dilly, and Withers, all four joined by their allegiance to evangelical Calvinist preaching and doctrine, with Withers joining Mason, the author, as non-dissenters.