William Wycherley

William Wycherley ( ; April 16411 January 1716) was an English playwright best known for writing the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer (1676).

Early life Wycherley was born at Clive near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, at a house called Clive Hall, although his birthplace has also been said (by Lionel Cust) to be Trench Farm to the north near Wem, later the birthplace of another writer, John Ireland, who was said to have been adopted by Wycherley's widow following the death of Ireland's parents. He was baptised on 8 April 1641, at Whitchurch, Hampshire. He was the son of Daniel Wycherley (1617–1697) and his wife Bethia, daughter of William Shrimpton. His family was settled on a moderate estate of about £600 a year, and his father was in the business service of the Marquess of Winchester. While in France, Wycherley converted to Roman Catholicism. He returned to England shortly before the restoration of King Charles II and lived at The Queen's College, Oxford, where Thomas Barlow was provost. In 1679, Charles engaged Wycherley as tutor for his bastard son, the Duke of Richmond, born in 1672. In 1689, Wycherley fled back to Shropshire after the accession of King William III displaced James II. He feuded with his father over his debts but eventually achieved a settlement to pay off £1,000 of them, enabling him to return to London.

Later life

Wycherley still had other debts, and they were not paid off even after he succeeded to a life estate in the family property at Clive after his father's death in 1697.