Notes for: Roger Wycliffe
There is no great reason for taking the "de" out of Roger de Wycliffe's name, but I will do that starting with this generation just to make these Wycliffes easier to find in the database. Wycliffe was still not really a proper surname at this time. It really served to tell where the person was from more than anything.
The best evidence available points to Roger and Catherine Wycliffe being the parents of John Wycliffe the Reformer. See the notes about this in John's Notes.
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 him the pedigree says "Roger de Wycliffe, Lord of Wycliffe and Ulvington, etc., to whom, by letters patent dated 24th October, 6 Edward III [abt 1333], the King granted special exemption from serving on all juries, etc., for the term of his life, in consideration of the great services which he had performed for the King. Was one of the commissioners of array of the Wapentake of Gilling West, and appointed, conjointly with Hugh de Thoresby to lead 20 men-at-arms and 200 archers against the Scots, 8 Edward III [abt 1335], and in the 9th Edward III [abt 1336], he was appointed, conjointly with the said Hugh, together with William de Scurneton and Galfred de Melsonby, to raise 400 men in Richmondshire for the Scottish wars. Was one of the commissioners of array 12 Edward III [abt 1339], and appointed with Henry le Scrope, Ranulph fil Ralph, Henry fil Hugh, Radolph Pygot, Thomas de Aske, John de Clervaux and Drogo de Anlaby, to raise 4 men-at-arms and 200 archers in Richmondshire, 18 Edward III [abt 1345]. Was one of the captains in the English army at the battle of Durham, 1346, when David de Brus, King of Scotland, was taken prisoner.
From A Genealogical and Historical Account of the Throckmorton Family in England and the United States: with brief notes on some of the allied families, by Charles Wickliffe Throckmorton (Richmond, VA; Old Dominion Press; 1930), p. 390:
Throckmorton quotes all of the above and goes on to say, "Married Katherine, daughter of ----------, who was a widow, 35 Edward III, then plaintiff in a plea of trespass, by whom he had:
1. Roger de Wycliffe, Knight, Lord of Wycliffe. Served in the Scottish Wars with his father. Was man-at-arms in the army of King Edward III in France. Was at the battle of Crecy, 1346, after which he was knighted by the King. Was one of the knights in the English army at the battle of Poictiers, 19th September, 1356.
2. Robert de Wycliffe, parson of the church of Wycliffe, plaintiff in a plea of trespass against John Neville of Hornby, 51 Edward I; living, 6 Richard II, 7 Henry IV; parson of the church of Rudby, 8 Henry V, and 1 Henry VI.
3. John, "The Morning Star of the Reformation," was sent, with the Bishop of Bangor and others, to Bruges to treat with the ambassadors of the Pope upon certain matters touching the Lord, the King and his realm of England, 48 Edward III, when he received 60 pounds for his wages. A privy seal was sent to him at Oxford, dated 22nd September, 50 Edward III, to repair to London to the King's council. He first translated the Bible into the English language and is called "Wycliffe the Reformer," Ob. 31st December, 1384. After his death he was accused of heresy and all his books seized, 2 Richard II (1387).
There is a 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 (this is one of those three) "are not sufficiently proved." So we need to take that into account as we look at this. Whitaker first lists Robert de Wycliff, then this Roger Wycliffe, husband of Catherine, then William Wycliffe, husband of Frances. About this Roger, Whitaker says this:
Roger Wycliffe, Lord of === Catherine, his wife,
Wycliffe, &c 1319; buried | buried at Wycliffe.
at Wycliffe.
This means Roger Wycliffe, Lord of Wycliffe and other villages (I think the "&c" means "etc.") married Catherine in 1319 and they were both buried at Wycliffe.
Whitaker has this Roger as probably the son of Robert de Wycliffe; however, I have this Roger as the great-grandson based on what Workman put in his book (see Notes for John Wycliffe, the Reformer). Anyway, all this is prettly weak and needs further proof - if that is even available. Whatever the case, both Whitaker and Workman agree that Roger and Catherine Wycliffe are the parents of the Reformer John Wycliffe.
Below Roger and Catherine Wycliffe, Whitaker has put their son William Wycliffe. Over to the right of William in Whitaker's genealogy, he has put John Wycliffe and Robert Wycliffe as what seems like brothers to William. That must be his guess, but it could very well be correct. Workman seems to agree with Whitaker's assumption.
The following needs editing. It comes from Richard Hodgson's database at WorldConnect. I believe this comes right from Workman's book:
Possibly Robert I was Roger's grandfather; if Roger's father, he must have been over 70 at his decease, Robert's son Roger cannot, however, have been the Roger Wyclif who figures as second in Whitaker's pedigree, and who was, as we take it, the father of the Reformer, for in 1316 it would appear that another Robert de Wyclif was lord of the manor.
We must therefore interpose in Whitaker's pedigree a Roger de Wycliffe, lord of the manor in 1303, who died before 1316, and a Robert de Wycliffe, lord of the manor in ????. Whether this Roger was the father or elder brother of this Robert we cannot tell, but assuming the long life of the founder of the family, they may well have been father and son.
At what date Robert de Wyclif, lord of the manor in 1316, died we do not know. All that is certain is that the Reformer's father, Roger de Wyclif, paid a relief of 25?. for three carucates that he held at Thorp in 1319,* and for Wycliffe paid the subsidy in 1332-3. In July 1345 he held Wycliffe, Thorpe, and Girlington by service of a knight's fee from William le Scrope. He was still alive in 1347-9. In his old age he was exempted by the king from civic duties, the liability to serve at assize, on jury, or as mayor, sheriff, coroner, or bailiff against his will. As he married in 1319 Katherine, the Reformer's mother, we may assume that he was born about the
year 1300. The fact that he was not at the time of his marriage the lord of the manor may account for the uncertainty as regards Wyclif's birthplace. The Reformer's father may have dwellt after his marriage in one of the smaller houses on the estate, very possibly at Thorp, of which, as we have seen, he paid the relief in 1319. This would be the more likely if the Robert de Wyclif, the lord at that time, was Roger's uncle and not his father. When the Reformer's father died is not known, except that it was before 1362, for unfortunately the black letter inscription in the church at Wycliffe over the tomb of Roger and Katherine gives no date.
From John Wycliffe, Patriot and Reformer: "The Morning Star of the Reformation", by John Laird Wilson (p. 16), we read this:
The head of the family, about the time of Wycliffe's birth, was Roger de Wycliffe, a prominent man in his day, and one who had done the king good service in his wars with the Scots. An ingeniously constructed pedigree makes John Wycliffe the son of this Roger. On this, however, no reliance can be placed. All that is certain is that he was of the Wycliffe family, and that he belonged to the older English race, which had in it a large intermixture of Teutonic elements.