Bob, I'll consider checking in my filing cabinet for documentation on verification of the name--a dreaded experience but will undertake this adventure when I get up the nerve. It's likely that I pulled this name from the Wardlaw, Ervin or Sims searches but it's been years since I looked at the material which was prior to my first computer in 1989. You probably know that the Witherspoons have a written genealogy on the John Knox alliance that dates some 300 years. I think it was Thomas Walker, a well-known Scottish ecclesiastical writer and brother to Ann Walker Witherspoon, that first wrote of the Knox-Witherspoon connection. From my research, the Welches of SC have this link as a family tradition since around 1762. I have never been able to verify a conclusion on the authenticity of the John Knox claims but never able to disprove the claims so I continue to maintain a chart back to Robert de Bruce, Lord of Annadale (Dumfrieshire) for family members who like a detailed pedigree chart prior to 1680s when the Welches arrived in SC Regards, Gene