William Withering FRS (17 March 1741 – 6 October 1799) was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and first systematic investigator of the bioactivity of digitalis.

The story is that he noticed a person with dropsy (swelling from congestive heart failure) improve remarkably after taking a traditional herbal remedy; Withering became famous for recognising that the active ingredient in the mixture came from the foxglove plant.

In 1785, Withering published An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses, which contained reports on clinical trials and notes on digitalis's effects and toxicity.

[4] During the Birmingham riots of 1791 (in which Joseph Priestley's home was demolished) he prepared to flee from Edgbaston Hall, but his staff kept the rioters at bay until the military arrived.

It was the first in English based on the then new Linnaean taxonomy — a classification of all living things — devised by the Swedish botanist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778).

[10] Withering wrote two more editions of this work in 1787 and 1792, in collaboration with fellow Lunar Society member Jonathan Stokes, and after his death his son (also William) published four more.

Withering senior also carried out pioneering work into the identification of fungi and invented a folding pocket microscope for use on botanical field trips.

In reality "Mother Hutton" was created in 1928 in an illustration by William Meade Prince as part of an advertising campaign by Parke-Davis who marketed digitalis preparations.

Since 1928, Mother Hutton's status has grown from being an image in an advertising poster to an acclaimed wise woman, herbalist, pharmacist and medical practitioner in Shropshire who was cheated out of her true recognition by Dr. Withering's unscrupulous methods.

Withering was in fact informed of the Brasenose College, Oxford case by one of his medical colleagues Dr. Ash at Birmingham Hospital and the Dean was treated with digitalis root not leaves.

The myth of Mother Hutton and how Withering chased her around Shropshire has been created by authors not going back to primary sources but instead copying and then embellishing the unreferenced work of others.

Recognising that foxglove was the active ingredient in a family recipe (that was long kept secret by an old woman in Shropshire) would not have been difficult with his expert botanical knowledge.

The memorial stone, now moved inside the church, has foxgloves and Witheringia solanaceae carved upon it to commemorate his discovery and his wider contribution to botany.