S. P. H. T.
108. Dr. Matthew Sutcliffe.
—None of the biographers of the famous Dr. Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, the controversial writer, and founder of Chelsea College, state where he was born, or where interred. Faulkner, in his History of Chelsea, observes that he was probably a native of Devonshire; but there appears to be some ground for considering that he was of a family settled at Mayroyd, in the parish of Halifax in Yorkshire. In a conveyance of the estate, dated 29th January, 1581, the grantor is Matthew Sutcliffe, "Doctor of Civil Law, dwelling in London." He was of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Doctor of Civil Law: he died in 1629. In his will he desires to be buried in Exeter Cathedral. Probably the inscription on his tombstone, if still existing, might settle this uncertainty. I shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who can throw any light on the subject.
JAMES CROSSLEY.
109. Names first given to Parishes.
—Is there any means of ascertaining the time at which names were first given to parishes? and can any reason be given for the recurrence of one termination in a particular locality? Thus between Caistor and Brigg in Lincolnshire, a distance of about nine miles, there are, I understand, the several parishes or hamlets of Clixby, Fonaby, Grassby, Ownby, Searby, Bigby, Barnetby, Wrawby, and there are many others in the neighbourhood. Of course, I know the meaning of by, as a termination; but I wish to know why it occurs so often in one locality, when perhaps a few miles off you have as many hams or thorpes.
Can you suggest any probable derivation of Swinhop?
F. B.
Leamington.