It is remarkable that the one possibly contemporary statement in regard to the authorship of Piers Plowman has never been adequately examined. That is the note in the Trinity College Dublin MS. D, 4, I (Skeat's No. XLI, C-text), to the effect that the author was William Langland, the son of a gentleman, Stacy de Rokayle, who lived in Shipton-under-Wychwood as a tenant of Lord le Spenser in the County of Oxford:Memorándum quod Stacy de Rokayle pater Willielmi de Longlond, qui Stacius fuit generosus, et morabatur in Shypton under Whicwode, tenens domini le Spenser in comitatu Oxon., qui predictus Willielmus facit librum qui vocatur Perys ploughman.
