Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/34

Repington  to Repington on 1 Feb. 1420, after which date he ceased to perform any episcopal acts. The dates seem to show that Repington was at this time in England (cf. also documents dated October–November 1419 in Cartularium de Rameseia, iii. 202–3, Rolls Ser.) Repington was still alive in 1422–3 (Pat. Roll, 1 Henry VI, ap. ). His will was proved on 1 Aug. 1424; it may therefore be supposed that he died shortly before. In his will Repington desired that he should be buried in the churchyard of St. Margaret, but he was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, near the grave of Grosseteste. His tomb bore the inscription: Marmoris in tumba simplex sine felle columba Repington natus jacet hic Philippus humatus. Flos adamas cleri, pastor gregis ac preco veri, Vivat ut in cœlis, quem poscat quique fidelis.

Repington was described in his lifetime as ‘a powerful and God-fearing man, a lover of truth and hater of avarice’ (, Fasti, p. 35). He does not appear to have possessed any great force of character, and his promotion was perhaps chiefly due to his friendship with Henry IV. It is to his credit that he avoided complying with the decree of the council of Constance ordering the disinterment of Wiclif's remains. Besides his letter to Henry IV already referred to, the writings of Repington which have survived are ‘Sermones super Evangelia;’ or ‘Sermones Dominicales,’ beginning ‘Evangelicæ tubæ comminatio.’ These sermons exist in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS. 54, Lincoln College MS. 85, Caius College MS. 246, Pembroke College, Cambridge, MS. 49, and Laud. MS. Misc. 635 in the Bodleian Library. They ‘have no Wicliffist leaven in them,’ and were apparently written between 1382 and 1393 (Church Quarterly Review, xix. 72). Repington may also be the author of some sermons (‘De Jejunio’) in Trinity College, Oxford, MS. 79. Bale also ascribes to Repington ‘De Sæculari Dominio,’ ‘Defensorium Wiclevi,’ and ‘Pro doctrina morali ejusdem.’ Repington was a benefactor of the library at Oxford (, Hist. and Antiq. ii. 913).

[Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, ii. 57, 66; Munimenta Academica, p. 237; Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 289–329; Wright's Political Songs, i. 262–3 (Rolls Ser.); Adam of Usk's Chronicle, ed. Thompson; Godwin, De Præsulibus, ed. Richardson, p. 296; Foxe's Acts and Monuments; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii. 16; Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, II. i. 76; Wood's History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, i. 492, 502–10, 541, 555, and Fasti, pp. 34–6; Ciaconius's Vitæ Pontificum, ii. 769, 775; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 622; Wylie's History of Henry IV, i. 199–201, 301, 483–4, ii. 460, iii. 296 n., 348, 352, 448. The notice in Williams's English Cardinals, ii. 1–32, is sketchy and very inaccurate. There is a much better account in the Church Quarterly Review, xix. 59–82 (the writer has made some use of the Lincoln records, but the latter part seems to be mainly conjectural); other authorities quoted.]  REPPES or RUGG, WILLIAM (d. 1550), bishop of Norwich. [See ]  REPTON, HUMPHRY (1752–1818), landscape-gardener, son of John Repton, collector of excise, by Martha, daughter of John Fitch of Moor Hall, Suffolk, was born on a small paternal estate at Bury St. Edmunds on 2 May 1752. Both his parents died about 1776. His education began at Bury, and, on the removal of the family to Norwich about 1762, was continued at Norwich grammar school. Being intended for commercial life, he was taken in 1764 to Helvoetsluys to learn Dutch at a school in the small village of Workum, where he remained for a year. The next five months were passed in the family of Zachary Hope of Amsterdam, after which he spent two years in a school at Rotterdam. When nearly sixteen years old he returned to Norwich to be trained in the trade of calicoes and satins. He married, on 5 May 1773, Mary Clarke, and set up in Norwich as a general merchant, but soon failed, and withdrew to Sustead, near Aylsham in Norfolk, in which town lived his only sister, Dorothy, the wife of John Adey, a solicitor respected throughout the county (, Diary, pp. 69, 295–6, 479). At Sustead he discharged the duties of a country gentleman, and under the encouragement of his friend and schoolfellow, Sir James Edward Smith [q. v.], studied botany and gardening. A long letter from him to Smith is printed in the latter's ‘Life and Correspondence,’ ii. 189–191. Windham lived in the adjoining parish of Felbrigg, and from his library Repton obtained the loan of many botanical works. In 1783 he accompanied Windham, then appointed chief secretary to the lord lieutenant, to Ireland, and remained there as the secretary's deputy for a few months until the arrival of Thomas Pelham, afterwards second earl of Chichester [q. v.] He then withdrew to a small cottage, now called Repton Cottage, at Hare Street, Romford, Essex, which he much improved and made his residence for over forty years.

Not long after his return to England Repton made the acquaintance of John Palmer (1742–1818) [q. v.], the mail-coach projector, and embarked the balance of his capital in schemes for the improvement of the 