William Dugdale

For other people named William Dugdale, seeWilliam Dugdale (disambiguation).

Sir William Dugdale ofBlyth Hallin 1656:an etching byWenceslaus Hollar

Sir William Dugdale(12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an Englishantiquaryandherald.As a scholar he was influential in the development ofmedieval historyas an academic subject.

Life

Dugdale was born atShustoke,nearColeshillinWarwickshire,where his father, John Dugdale, wasstewardto the local landowner. As he was born, a swarm of bees flew into the garden, which some considered "a happy presage on the life of the babe".

He was educated atKing Henry VIII School,Coventry. In 1623, he married Margaret Huntbach (1607–81), with whom he had nineteen children. In 1625, the year after his father's death, he purchased the manor ofBlyth,near Shustoke. During an enclosure dispute with a neighbour a few years later he met the Leicestershire antiquaryWilliam Burton,who acted as arbitrator. He became involved in transcribing documents and collecting church notes and met other Midlands antiquaries such asSir Simon Archer(1581–1662) andSir Thomas Habington.He began working with Archer on the history ofWarwickshireand their research led them to the archives of public records in London. There he metSir Christopher Hatton,Sir Henry Spelman,Sir Simonds d'EwesandSir Edward Dering.Hatton provided him with hospitality in Holborn and became his principal patron.

In 1638, through the influence of his friends Dugdale was created apursuivant of arms extraordinaryby the name ofBlanche Lyon,and, in 1639, he was promoted to the office ofRouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary.The accommodation in theCollege of Armsand the income from his post enabled him to pursue his research in London.

According to his later account, in 1641 Sir Christopher Hatton, foreseeing theEnglish Civil Warand dreading the ruin and spoliation of the Church, commissioned him to make exact drafts of all the monuments inWestminster Abbeyand the principal churches in England.

Portrait of Sir William Dugdale bySilvester Harding

In June 1642, he was summoned with the other heralds to attend the king atYork.When thewarbroke out Charles deputed him to summon the castles ofBanburyandWarwickto surrender.

He witnessed theBattle of Edgehill,and later returned with a surveyor to make a survey of the battlefield. He arrived in Oxford with the king in November 1642 and he was admittedMAof theUniversity.He worked as a bureaucrat in the royalist capital, especially after December 1643 when Hatton was appointedComptroller of the Household.In 1644 the king appointed himChester Herald of Arms in Ordinary.

During his leisure at Oxford he collected material at theBodleian Libraryandcollege librariesfor his books. It was during these years that he metElias Ashmole,who later became his son-in-law. Following the surrender of Oxford in 1646 Dugdale returned to Blyth Hall and compounded for his estates under the terms of the Oxford articles. Hatton, who had opposed the surrender, went into exile in France, where Dugdale visited him in 1648.

He recommenced his antiquarian researches, collaborating withRoger Dodsworthon theMonasticon Anglicanum,the first volume of which was published in 1655. In the following year he published his ownAntiquities of Warwickshire,which was soon recognised as a modelcounty history.In this work he was one of the first to consider the significance ofstone tools,stating these were "weapons used by the Britons before the art of making arms of brass or iron was known".

At theRestorationDugdale obtained the office ofNorroy King of Armsthrough the influence ofthe Earl of Clarendon.In the office of Norroy he undertookheraldic visitationsof the counties north of theTrent.

In 1677 he wasknightedand promoted to the office ofGarter Principal King of Arms,which he held until his death. In his last years he wrote an account of his life at the request ofAnthony Wood.He died "in his chair" atBlyth Hallin 1686, aged 80.

Works

• Monasticon Anglicanum(1655–1673);As can be read on the title page, the original was written in Latin and the work linked to here is the version translated into English and abridged by James Wright. This version was published in 1693.
• Antiquities of Warwickshire(1656)
• History of St Paul's Cathedral(1658)
• The History of Imbanking and Drayning(1662)
• Origines Juridiciales(1666)
• Baronage of England(1675–1676)
• A Short View of the Late Troubles(1681)
• Ancient Usage of Bearing Arms(1682)
• Visitations of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, etc.

He also editedSir Henry Spelman'sGlossarium Archaiologicum(1664) andConcilia(1664), adding his own extensions to the latter. HisLife,written by himself up to 1678, with his diary and correspondence, and an index to his manuscript collections, was edited byWilliam Hamper,and published in 1827.

Arms

Coat of arms of William Dugdale

Crest A griffin's head & wings or. Escutcheon Argent, a millrind cross (Cross moline) gules with a roundel gules in the dexter canton. Motto Pestis Patriae Pigrities( "Sloth is the bane of a country" )

Legacy

TheDugdale Society,atext publication societyfor Warwickshire, takes its name from William Dugdale.

See also

• College of Arms
• Dugdale baronets

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Dugdale, Sir William".Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Sources

• Broadway, Jan (1999).William Dugdale and the Significance of County History in Early Stuart England.Dugdale Society Occasional Papers. Vol. 39. Stratford-upon-Avon: Dugdale Society.
• Broadway, Jan (2011).William Dugdale: a life of the Warwickshire historian and herald.Gloucester: Xmera.ISBN9780956742803.
• Dyer, Christopher;Richardson, Catherine, eds. (2009).William Dugdale, Historian, 1605–1686: his life, his writings and his county.Woodbridge: Boydell.ISBN9781843834434.
• Hamper, William(1827).The Life, Diary, and Correspondence of Sir William Dugdale, Knight.London: Harding, Leppard, and Co.
• Maddison, Francis;Styles, Dorothy; Wood, Anthony (1953).Sir William Dugdale, 1605–1686: a list of his printed works and of his portraits, with notes on his life and the manuscript sources.Warwick: L. E. Stephens.
• Parry, Graham (2009) [2004]. "Dugdale, Sir William (1605–1686)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8186.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
• Scroggs, E. S. (1937). "Sir William Dugdale, 1605–86".Journal of the British Archaeological Association.3rd ser.2(1): 1–16.doi:10.1080/00681288.1937.11894351.

External links

• "Archival material relating to William Dugdale".UK National Archives.
• Catalogue of Dugdale's correspondence
• Dugdale Society