RICHMOND:
database file source="h:/!Genuki/RecordTranscriptions/NRY/RichmondGuide.txt"
Robinson's Guide to Richmond (1833)
Part 18
Wycliffe
Wycliffe
To the east of Rokeby is the parish of Wycliffe, which for
a long series of years was owned by a family of the same name.
They are first noticed in a record of the time of Edward I. and
continued to hold the estate until the early part of the seventeenth
century, when the eldest branch ended in female co-heiresses.
There is strong reason to believe that the venerable Wycliffe,
the translator of the bible, and "morning star of the reformation,"
was a younger brother of this family:- and in the rectory at Wycliffe,
is preserved a portrait of the Reformer, painted by Sir Antony
More. this, however, could not be an original painting, as that
Artist was a contemporary of Edward VI. and Queen Mary; and Dr.
Whitaker conjectures that it has probably been copied from an
"illumination" in one of the manuscripts of Wycliffe's
Bible.
The chief argument against the reformer's connection with this
family, is the fact that his name is not found in their recorded
pedigrees. It appears, however, from their religious benefactions,
and their connections in the Hierarchy, that they were warmly
attached to the Romish Religion; and as Vaughan, in his life of
the Reformer, justly observes, "it is in the highest degree
probable, that the difficulty of placing Wycliffe's consanguinity
with the patrons of Wycliffe beyond all possible suspicion, has
arisen purely from the efforts of his kinsmen to save their descendants
from bearing the reproach of his enormous heresy." In fact,
Wycliffe himself seems to allude to this circumstance in one of
his tracts where, speaking of the difficulties which surround
the pious children of worldly minded parents, he says, "For
by so doing, the child getteth many enemies to his elders, and
they say that he slandereth all their noble kindred who were ever
held to be true men and worshipful."
It should also be stated, that Leland, in his description of
Richmond, mentions a place which he calls Spreswell, "a good
mile from Richmond, the birth place of John Wicliffe." No
village or hamlet of that name is to be found in Richmondshire;
and on this vague memorandum, which is not supported by any record
or other authority, Dr. Whitaker has ventured to build a theory
which fixes Hipswell as the Reformer's native village. But Leland
himself, in his Collectanea, supplies evidence to the contrary.
After describing the parish of Wycliffe, he adds "unde Wigclif
haereticus originem duxit." It seems, however, to be admitted
on all hands that Richmondshire may boast the honour of his origin.
Although the estate has passed, as above mentioned, into other
families, the lineage of the Wycliffe's can be traced in undoubted
succession, through a younger branch, to the late Mr. Wycliffe
of Richmond, who died childless, about ten or twelve years ago.
Data transcribed from:
Robinson's Guide to Richmond (1833)
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