Sir John Wittewrong, 1st Baronet (1 November 1618–23 June 1693) was an English parliamentarian colonel and squire of Rothamsted.
The Wittewrongs were a Flemish Protestant family who in 1564 left Ghent in the Spanish Netherlands for London.[1] Jacques Wittewrong came to London with his wife and two children. Most of the Wittewrong family followed Jacques, who made a career and public notary,[2] and died in 1593.
John Wittewrong was a grandson of Jacques, and son of Jacob Wittewrong(le) (1558–1622)[3] by his second wife Anna, daughter of Garrard Vanaker of Antwerp, a merchant. Jacob was a wealthy brewer.[4] On Jacob's death Anna then married Thomas Myddelton, as his fourth wife, and survived him.[5] Through his stepfather John gained a Welsh connection, and he was later High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire for 1665 though the manor of Talerddig.[6]
He was knighted in 1640, and he then fought on the side of Parliament in the English Civil War as a colonel. He was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1658.[7] In religion he was an Independent, at one time a member of the congregation of William Bridge, and later supported ministers of nonconforming views.[8],
He bought land at Wheathampstead in 1649.[9] He was created baronet in 1662, and in 1667 bought Stantonbury from Sir John Temple, where he built a mansion of which only a few traces are left.[10][11] He also owned Rothamsted Manor;[1] the family had leased it from 1611, and purchased it in 1623, after which Sir John made many alterations.[12]