WITHERS, Robert Jewell (1824-1894), a prominent architect of London, England who was commissioned in 1858 to design an elaborate parsonage at Newcastle, New Brunswick for Rev. James Hudson, who appears to be the resident vicar at St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Pleasant Street at Jane Street, NEWCASTLE, N.B. A detailed architectural description of the timber parsonage was published in The Ecclesiologist [London], xx, February 1859, p. 74, and notes that “...Mr. Withers has given a great deal of Pointed character to his framework, and the general design is as able, as it is picturesque”. Nearly 14 years later, a perspective view of the design by Withers for this Canadian project was published in the Boston edition of the British book entitled “Examples of Modern Architecture – Ecclesiastical and Domestic”. This publication contained 64 plates illustrating designs by eminent British architects including George Gilbert Scott, John P. Seddon, George Edmund Street, Robert J. Withers, George F. Bodley, Edward B. Lamb and others, Plate 54 displayed a perspective view of the parsonage in Newcastle, but it is unclear if this elaborate residence was ever built. It may be presumed that this was to be located beside, or near, the original St. Andrew's Church erected in Newcastle in 1850. The church itself is a distinctive landmark, and still stands today as of 2020, and is now listed by Parks Canada as one of Canada's Historic Sites.
Withers was born at Shepton Mallet, Co. Somerset on 2 February 1824 and articled with Thomas Hellyer, an architect in Ryde, Isle of Wight and a specialist in ecclesiastical works. His early training with Hellyer likely influenced Withers to pursue an interest in the design of churches, and at the time of his death in 1894 he was said to have built and restored nearly one hundred churches in the United Kingdom. Withers opened his own office in Sherborne, Eng. in 1848, then moved to London in 1850, and was nominated as a Fellow of the R.I.B.A. in 1873. His brother was Frederick Clarke Withers (1828-1901), an architect in London who later moved to New York City and became a partner with Calvert Vaux (1824-1895), in the firm of Vaux, Withers & Co. from 1863 to 1872. Robert Withers died in London on 7 October 1894 (obituary, Building News [London], lxvii, 12 October 1894, 518; biog. and list of works in The Architect's, Engineer's & Building Trades Directory [London], 1868, 144; biog. Royal Inst. of British Architects [London], Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, Vol. 2, p. 1041).