Notes for: Robert de Wycliffe
The name of this Wycliffe comes from a Wycliffe pedigree in The History of Yorkshire; Wapentake of Gilling West, by Marshall General Plantagenet Harrison (1885). I don't know where Harrison got this information. I can only assume it is guesswork on his part from looking at old records. Harrison's pedigree seems to be the only one that goes back this far; so I will go with it for now.
About this Robert de Wycliffe, the pedigree says he was "Lord of Wycliffe, gave a rentcharge of six shillings and eightpence yearly out of his mill at Wycliffe to Margaret, Prioress of Ellerton, and her convent, to hold to her and her successors for ever in free, pure and perpetual alms, in the time of King Henry II." No wife is mentioned. One son (Roger de Wycliffe) and one daughter (Avicia) are mentioned.
Since King Henry II ruled from 1154-1189, we might guess that this Robert de Wycliffe died before 1189.
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There is another genealogy of this Wycliffe family from Yorkshire in An History of Richmondshire, in the North Riding of the County of York; together with those parts of the Everwicschire of Domesday which form The Wapentakes of Lonsdale, Ewecross, and Amunderness, in the Counties of York, Lancaster, and Westmoreland, by Thomas Dunham WHITAKER. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees (and others), 1823. 2 volumes. It says the first three generations "are not sufficiently proved." So we need to take that into account as we look at this. Whitaker first lists a Robert de Wycliff, then Roger Wycliffe, husband of Catherine, then William Wycliffe, husband of Frances. The Robert de Wycliffe he mentions is probably an earlier ancestor of Roger Wycliffe. That is what I'm assuming anyway. About Robert he says this:
Robert de Wycliff, Lord of Wycliffe, &c. 6
Edward I by Kirkby's Inquest, 1287, held 12
Car. of land, &c. in Wycliffe Thorpe and Girlington.
This means that Robert Wycliffe was Lord of Wycliffe and several other hamlets/villages. At the time of some Inquest held by Kirkby in the sixth year of King Edward I (the year is 1278 actually and not 1287), Robert held twelve carucates of land (plowable land) in the villages of Wycliffe, Thorpe, and Girlington.
The following comes from the book on John Wyclif by Workman (37-38):
Some writers have spoken of the Wyclifs as of Norman origin and have dwelt upon their long possession of the manor. In reality the family had not been lords of Wycliffe for more than about fifty years when the Reformer was born. In Domesday book "Witcliffe" is entered as among the places "altogether waste." but this refers to oxen and live stock, and does not mean that there were no inhabitants. Whether the Wyclifs were of native Saxon stock or whether they had come from other parts to fill up the desert places after the Conqueror's harrying of Yorkshire we cannot say. In either event the Wyclifs at first were only under-tenants. At what date they obtained the enfeoffment of the manor is not recorded; it cannot have been before 1286-7, in which year we find William de Kirkton mesne lord of Wycliffe, Girlington, and half the vill of Thorpe, from whom Robert de Wyclif held seven carucates in the same townships,"which make a knight's fee." This Robert de Wyclif was possibly the same Robert to whom had been granted in 1253 a messuage and rent in Wycliffe, and who on the 6th May 1263 obtained from Roger, prior of Markeby,"for himself and his heirs for ever" the avowson of the church.* At Thorp Robert Wyclif had a sub-tenant, Felicia de Houghton, and at Girlington he sublet three carucates to a certain Thomas. These additional five carucates Robert Wyclif held from Mary of Middleham, a tenant of the count. For these Robert rendered the due services. He also bought certain tenements at Gayles near Kirkby Ravensworth, possibly for a younger son, for descendants of the Wyclif family lived on there to the early years of the nineteenth century. In the inquisition made in 1280-1 into the estate of Peter of Savoy, among the knights who "owe guard at the castle of Richmond" there is mention of a "fee for the same for which Robert de Wyclif renders one half mark." Robert seems to have been a pushing, successful man, the founder of a family of small country gentlemen.
*Final Concords of the Co. of Lincoln, ii. 289 (ed. C. W. Foster for Lincoln Rec. ??c. v. 17, 1920). Robert's daughter was named Alice, ib. ii. 152.
***End of info from Workman's book.
There is a William Wycliffe, father of Anne Wycliffe, who could belong to this family. This Anne Wycliffe married a Robert Tyrwhitt who died about 1322. Thi is from http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p748.htm#i22469.
The following comes from History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, v. 2, Hull: London, 1841, p. 339:
A.D. 1278, 6 Edw. I. Sir Robert de Wycliffe was a witness to a charter, along with Sir William Skargill. In 10 Edward I. A.D. 1282, upon an inquisition, held to inquire into the extent of the lands belonging to the honor of Richmond, this Sir Robert Wycliffe was one of the jurors, along with Sir William Skargill; and in the same year he paid half a mark for one knight's fee, in Hoton Parva, towards the ward of Richmond Castle. By Kirby's Inquest, A.D. 1287, 15 Edw. I. Robt, de Wycliffe held 12 carucates of land in Wycliff, Thorp, and Girlington.