WITENAGEMOT. 604 WITHROW. had its Witenagemot, and when the kingdoms were brought under a common overlord he had his Witenagemot. The members of the Witenage- mot were usually the King, the bishops, the ealdormen, and the dependents of the King, who were called niinistri, or thanes. It is probable that the Witenagemot was earlier a much larger body, and that the less wealthy and less power- ful "members ceased to attend because of the ex- pense or from lack of interest. The actual num- bers recorded as present on various occasions are not large. Stubbs regards the Mteuagcmot of the vear 966 as a fair example; there were present "then the King's mother, 2 archbishops, 7 bishops, 5 ealdormen, and 15 ministri. The Witenagemot participated in the enactment of laws, both civil and ecclesiastical; assented to grants of land; was a court of last resort ; gave its consent for extraordinary taxation; advised as to the deter- mination of war and peace; consented, in theory, to tlie appointment of ealdormen and possibly of bishops ; and elected and sometimes deposed the kings. Kemble lays down a niuiiber of canons about the power of the Witenagemot. His first, which, as Stubbs says, "is large enough to cover all the rest," is: "First, and in general, they [the members of the Witenagemot] possessed a consultative voice and a right to consider every public act which could be authorized by the King." The actual power of the Witenagemot would vary inversely with that of the King; and luider a strong kin|; the Witenagemot would tend to become merely the King's council. This would be cspeciall.y true if the King had, as he seems to have had, the right of packing the Wite- nagemot by introducing more niinistri. Consult: Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. i. (6th ed., Oxford, 1897) ; Gneist, VcrwaUungsrecht (2f vols., 2d ed., I5crlin, 1867) ; Kemble, History of the Anglo-Saxons in England, vol. ii. (London, 1876) : Freeman. History of the Norman Con- quest (5 vols., Oxford. 1870-76). WITH'EB or WITH'ERS, George (1588- 1667). An English poet, born at Bentworth, near Alton, in Hampshire. He spent two years at Magdalen College, Oxford (1604-06), but left without a degree. In 1610 he settled in London as a student of the law and made the acquaint- ance of the poet William Browne (q.v.). He published Mournful Elegies (1612) on the death of Prince Henr}', and a collection of Epithtilainia (161.3) on the marriage of Princess Elizabeth with the Elector Palatine. A volume of satires, entitled Abuses i^tript and Whijit (1613), led to his imprisonment for a few months in the Mar- shalsea. To Browne's Shepherd's Pipe (1614) he contributed two eclogues, and wrote, while in prison, the beautiful Shepherd's Hunting (pul>. Ifil.i), containing the famed address to Poesy. To about the sanK! time belongs Eidelia (pub. 1617), the lament of a inaidcn forsaken by her lover. To the edition of 1619 was added the precious l3'ric beginning "Sliall 1, wasting in despair." This jioem was followed by "Fair Virtue, or the Mistress of Philarete" (1622, but composed much earlier), the last of his pure lyrics. Wither now turned to religious Terse, publishing the Songs of the Old Testament, to each of which was added "a new and easie Tune" (1621), and Hymns and Songs of the Chureh (1623) ; both volumes had considerable vogue. He collected his early poems under the title Juvenilia (1622; revised 1626; 2d ed. 1033). Religious verse was continued in Ttic Psalms of David (1632), Emblems (1635), and Hale- lujah ( 1641 ) . The last volume contains Wither's finest religious poems. Joining Parliament against King Charles I., Wither sold his estates and raised a troop of horse ( 1642) . Though unsuccessful in the field, he was appointed major. He took an important hand in the scurrilous pamphlets known as Mercuries and squandered his fine talents. After the Restoration he was sent to Newgate and then to the Tower for a verse pamphlet called Vox Vulgi. He remained in prison from ilarch 24, 1662, till July 27, 1663. He died in London. His later work has no literary interest. Most of Wither's works were issued by the Spenser Society (20 parts, Manchester, 1870-83). Con- suit: Selections from Poems of Wither, ed. by H. Morley (in Companion Poets, London, 1891) ; Fidelia and Fair Virtue, ed. by E. A. Arber (in English Garner, vols. iv. and vi., ib., 1882 and 1883) ; T. H. Ward's English Poets, vol. ii. (ib., 1880) : and Charles Lamb's essay entitled "Poetical Works of George Wither" (in Lamb's Works, ib., 1818). ■WITH'ERSPOON, John (1723-94). An American Presbyterian clergyman and statesman. He was born at Gilford, Scotland, graduated at the LTniversity of Edinburgh in 1742, and served as minister of several parishes in Scotland from 1745 to 1768, winning a high reputation as preacher and writer. In 1768 he accepted an invi- tation to become president of Princeton College in Kew Jersey and held the position till his death. During the suspension of the college by the war he was a member of the constitutional convention of New Jersey in 1776, and for si.x: years of the Continental Congress ; he advocated and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation; was an active member of several important committees and of the board of war, visiting the camps to increase the comfort of the troops. When the college was reopened he lectured on moral philosophy and rhetoric. He visited England in 1783 and 1784 to solicit funds, but foiuid the state of public opinion too hostile to admit of much success. For the last two years of his life he was lilind. His works were collected at New York in four volumes ( 1800-01 ) . and at Edinburgh in nine vol- umes (1804). Among them are: Ecclesiastical Characteristics (1753); Essay on Justification (1756); Serious Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Stage (1757) ; Essays on Impor- tant Suhjects (1764) ; and Authority of the llrit- iuh Parliament (1774). He also published many sermons, lectures, essays, etc. A memoir by his son-in-law, the Rev. Samuel S. Smith, prefaced the New York edition of his works and also ap- peared separately (New York, 1795). Consult Proceedings at the Vnt^ciling of the Statue of John Witherspoon, edited by W. P. Breed (Phila- delphia, 1877). "WITHINGTON. A town in Lancashire, Englanil. 4 miles southeast of Manchester, of which it is ;i residential suburb and with which its chief piblic industries are connected. Popula- tion, in 1891. 25,729; in 1001, 36,201. •WITH'I10"W, William Henry (18.19— 1. A Canadian autlior, born at Toronto, and educated
