Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/115

 Whitcliffe, reputed to have lived at Ipreswell twohundred years ago, would tend to become identified with the famous "heretic" who gave Englishmen their open Bible.

The local tradition of a Spreswell close to the village of Wycliffe, which has beeji accepted by Dr.Vaughan, and also by Professor Lechler, presents various difficulties, and must be treated with particular caution, because one would be decidedly glad to believe it. According to this tradition, Spreswell was no mere figment of a name, and still less Ipreswell or Hipswell, but an actual hamlet or thorp, within the manor of the Wycliffes, and about half a mile from the present village of Wycliffe-on-Tees. Certain evidence in support of this contention has been adduced by the Rev. John Erskine, now Rector of Wycliffe. The evidence consists of:

1. A letter from William Chapman, 133 Church Street, Monkwearmouth (January 14, 1884), to the Rev. J. Erskine:

"I saw an account of the intended 'Restorationof Wycliffe Church, which stands close to Wycliffe Hall, the supposed birthplace of Wycliffe.' Leland, the historian, says Wycliffe was born at Spreswell, near Richmond. I enclose a copy of a statement made by my great-grandfather, John Chapman, who died 1849, aged eighty-one years, at Alwent Hall, Gainford."

2. The statement of John Chapman:

"Spreswell or Speswell stood half a mile west from Wycliffe, and on the same side and close to the River Tees. The Plough has passed over its site,