Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/32

 wick was appointed to the Marlborough, and, when she was ordered to the West Indies, to the Egmont, in which he was present at the relief of Gibraltar, and in the rencounter off Cape Spartel in October 1782. In February 1784 he was surgeon of the Thorn sloop, and afterwards of the Merlin on the Newfoundland station, and of the Druid in the Channel and at Lisbon. In 1787 he was put on half-pay, and in 1788 published ‘The Solicitudes of Absence’ (London, 1788, 12mo), mainly composed of correspondence from and to friends at home. From 1795 to December 1800 he was surgeon of the Vulture; and of the Portland till February 1802, when he was put on half-pay. On 20 June 1804 he was, to his disgust, superannuated ‘for various infirmities,’ on three shillings a day.

He retired to Berwick, where he led a solitary and eccentric existence, until his death in October 1814, at the age of seventy-six; he was buried on 25 Oct.

Besides several pamphlets on the state of the medical service of the navy, and the two works already mentioned, he wrote ‘The Sorrows of Love, with other Poems’ (Alnwick, 1810, 12mo); ‘The Unfortunate Lovers, or the genuine Distress of Damon and Celia’ (London, 1771, 2 vols. 12mo), and probably ‘Damon and Delia, a Tale’ (London, 1784, 12mo). They are all largely autobiographical.

[Renwick's writings; Berwick Parish Register, by the kindness of the vicar, the Rev. Charles Baldwin; official documents in the Public Record Office.]  RENZY or RENTSI, MATTHEW  (1577–1634), Irish writer, born in 1577, was a native of Cologne, and was said to be descended from Scanderbeg, but the ‘Biographie Universelle’ says the last descendant of the Albanian hero was the Marquis of St. Ange, who was killed at Pavia in 1525.

Sir Matthew was an officer of the customs in Ireland. In 1623 he corresponded with the lord-treasurer Middlesex about revenue business (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. pp. 284, 302). On 30 Jan. 1628–9 he wrote to Middlesex that there was a plot among the Leinster catholics to massacre the English (ib. p. 290). He received grants of land from James I, and also purchased property in King's County, where he made considerable improvements. He died on 29 Aug. 1634. Clobemon Hall, Ferns, was held by his descendants until recent times. A monument still standing in St. Peter's Church, Athlone, was erected by his son Matthew one year after his death. According to the inscription, he was ‘a great traveller and general linguist, and kept correspondence with most nations in many weighty affairs; and in three years gave great perfection to this nation by composing a grammar, dictionary, and chronicle in the Irish tongue: in accounts most expert, and exceeding all others to his great applause.’ Diligent search has been made for the works mentioned, but without result, and if they are extant it is probably in some foreign library.

[Ware's Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris; Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 3rd quarter, 1890; Morrin's Cal. Pat. Rolls, Charles I, p. 96.]  REPINGTON or REPYNGDON, PHILIP (d. 1424), bishop of Lincoln and cardinal, was, according to Fuller, a native of Wales, but his family were probably connected with Repton. He was educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, and was an Augustinian canon of St. Mary de Pré, Leicester, previously to 1382. While still a bachelor of divinity he preached the Wiclifite doctrine on the sacrament of the altar at Brackley, Northamptonshire. He was soon a very prominent supporter of Wiclif at Oxford, but enjoyed universal esteem for his moderate and kindly bearing ('Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 296-7). He incepted as doctor of divinity in the summer term 1382. On 5 June 1382 he was appointed by the chancellor, Robert Rygge [q. v.], to preach at St. Frideswide's. In his sermon he defended the Wiclifite doctrine on the sacrament, and is said to have stirred up the people to insurrection, declaring that temporal lords ought to be more commended in sermons than the pope or bishops (cf., Historia Anglicana, ii. 66, and Fasciculi Zizaniorum, p. 299). Two days later he publicly disputed in the schools, declaring that his own order was better when ten years old than when a thousand. Peter Stokes [q. v.], the Carmelite, determined against him on 10 June. Repington afterwards incepted as doctor of divinity. In the council at Blackfriars, London, on 12 June the chancellor was ordered to suspend Repington, Nicholas Herford [see ], and others. Rygge, under pressure, published the sentence at Oxford on 15 June. Repington and Herford at once appealed without success to John of Lancaster. On 18 June they were ordered to reply to the conclusions formulated against them, and, after some postponements, were condemned and excommunicated at Canterbury on 1 July [see further under ]. In the royal letter of 13 July it was ordered that any one 