Who said 'Blood is thicker than water'?

"http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_said_%27Blood_is_thicker_than_water%27" A terrible liar. It's not unusual for dysfunctional family fallacies to revolve around issues of loyalty, closeness and specialness with rules and beliefs that support the family's system of denial. The dysfunctional family systems look at Blood is thicker than water, these fallacies are held that promote belief in the importance of strong family loyalty. Such as Blood is thicker than water. So you can only trust family. When that same family is abusive, the child/adult is burdened with how to understand or interpret the fact that the only people he/she can trust are the same people who hurt him. The Blood is thicker than water… Really means that no outsiders are allowed. This is the dysfunctional family system interpreting loyalty. Without the influence of outside help, Blood is thicker than water fallacies and beliefs continue to run unchallenged. The proverb comes from the German, Blut ist dicker als Wasser. Its first known recorded use - translated as Kin-blood isn't spoiled by water - was in the epic Reinhart Fuchs [Reynald the Fox], which was written in about 1180 by a poet who used the pseudonym Heinrich der Glichezaere [Henry the Hypocrite].

The first known English use of the proverb was the statement by the priest John Lydgate of Bury [c. 1370-c. 1451], For naturally blood will be of kind/Drawn-to blood, where he may it find. The first known uses of the form, Blood is thicker than water, were in a collection of Proverbs by John Ray [November 29, 1627-January 17, 1705]; in the novel Guy Mannering by Sir Water Scott, 1st Baronet [August 15, 1771-September 21, 1832]; and in Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes [October 20, 1822-March 22, 1896].

A famous use of the proverb was an explanation by U.S. Navy Commodore Josiah Tattnall, Jr. [June 14, 1794-June 14, 1871]. The United States policy was one of neutrality towards China. But the American Squadron helped a British squadron that was being fired on from the Pei Ho River forts ka Taku, on June 25, 1859. The commodore's incorporation of Blood [tie to the British] is thicker than water into his rationale for the defensive move made the proverb famous.