[f. as prec. + -ER1.] One who withdraws, in various senses of the vb.; spec. in Sc. Church Hist., one who did not conform to the established church in the 17th century.
1475. Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.), 46. Sethe that none suche were never sene withdrawers or fleers frome batailes.
1580. Outred, trans. M. Cope’s Expos. Prov., 192 b. Joseph … was not a withdrawer of the corne, but a seller.
1606. in J. Forbes, Cert. Rec. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), 519. Contempners of his Majesties lawes, withdrawers and corrupters of his Majestie’s subjects hearts from his obedience.
c. 1639. Baillie, in Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), Introd. 43. They are … withdrawers of their hands.
1677. Reg. Privy Council Scot., Ser. III. (1912), V. 121. Constant withdrawers and keepers of conventicles.
1823. J. Brown, Hist. Brit. Ch. (new ed.), II. 312. Parliament … enacted [in 1663] That … all with-drawers from the conform incumbents of their own parish, be punished.
