Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/251

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

never devoted himself to the study of theology until he went beyond the seas, and that he excerpted his book against Jewel from a manuscript which Dr. Richard Smith, just before his death, entrusted to his care. 2. ‘A Disproufe of Mr. Alex. Nowell's Reproufe,’ Antwerp, 3 Dec. 1565, 4to. In this he confidently and in direct words charges his adversary with eighty-two lies. Nowell published a ‘Confutation’ of this book. 3. ‘A Request to Mr. Jewel that he keep his promise made by solemn Protestation in his late Sermon at Paul's Cross, 15 June 1567,’ London, 1567, 8vo; Louvain, 1567, 12mo.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (b. liss), i. 434, 718; Wood's Annals (Gutch), ii. 146; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 914; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 88; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 231; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), pp. 938, 967; Douay Diaries, 4, 272; Gough's Gen. Index to Parker Soc. Publications; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Churton's Life of Nowell, pp. 106, 116–25, 131, 305.]

T. C.

DORMER, JAMES (1679–1741), lieutenant-general, colonel 1st troop of horse-grenadier guards, son of Robert Dormer of Dorton, Buckinghamshire, who died 1693, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Charles Cotterell [q. v.], master of the ceremonies to Charles I, Charles II, and James II, and ambassador at Brussels in 1663, was born 16 March 1679. He was appointed lieutenant and captain 1st foot guards 13 June 1700, in which rank he was wounded at Blenheim, where a brother-officer of the same name and regiment, Lieutenant-colonel Philip Dormer, was killed (Treas. Papers, xciii. 79). In command of a newly raised corps of Irish foot he went to Spain, and distinguished himself at Saragossa in 1709, and was taken prisoner with General Stanhope at Brihuega in Castile in December 1710. He appears to have been awarded 200l. for his losses by pillage at Brihuega and at Bilbao on his way home on parole (ib. cxxxvii. 8). On the death of Lord Mohun in the notorious duel with the Duke of Hamilton in 1712, Dormer, who had been exchanged, was appointed colonel of Mohun's regiment, which was disbanded the year after. In 1715 he was commissioned to raise a regiment of dragoons in the south of England, which is now the 14th hussars. He commanded a brigade during the Jacobite rising in Lancashire, and was engaged with the rebels at Preston. Transferred to the colonelcy of the 6th foot in 1720, was envoy extraordinary to Lisbon about 1727-8, where he had a dispute with Thomas Burnett, the British consul (Eg. MS. 921); was appointed a lieutenant-general and colonel 1st troop of horse-grenadier guards in 1737, and governor of Hull in 1740. He died at Crendon, Buckinghamshire, 24 Dec. 1741. He was a member of the Kit-Cat Club, collected a fine library (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ii. 658), and appears to have been an acquaintance of Swift (Works, xvii. 338). His christian name is wrongly given by many writers, and Granger in ‘Biog. Hist. Eng.’ (ed. 1806, App. vol. iii.) seems disposed to confuse him with Colonel Charles Dormer, who fell at the head of Lord Essex's dragoons (now the 4th hussars) at the battle of Almanza in 1707. He was unmarried, and bequeathed the Cheasley estate to his cousin Sir Clement Cotterell, knt. (afterwards Cotterell-Dormer), master of the ceremonies to George II.

[Lipscomb's Hist. Buckinghamshire, i. 119 (pedigree); Hamilton's Hist. Grenadier Guards, vol. iii.; Cannon's Hist. Recs. 4th and 14th Light Dragoons (succession of colonels); Cal. Treas. Papers, 1704–9, under ‘James Dormer;’ War Office (Home Office) Mil. Entry Books in Public Record Office, London.]

H. M. C.

DORMER, JANE, Duchess of Feria (1538–1612), the second daughter of Sir William Dormer, by his first wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir William Sidney, was born at Heythrop, Oxfordshire, 6 Jan. 1538. On the death of her mother in 1542 she was placed under the care of her grandmother, Jane, lady Dormer, daughter of John Newdigate, and remained with her till she was taken into the household of Princess Mary. In her early years she was the playfellow of Edward VI, whose tutor, Jane's maternal grandfather, would constantly send for her to read, play, dance, and sing with his pupil. Between Jane and Mary there sprang up a strong friendship, which continued unimpaired until the latter's death. They were inseparable companions, and often shared the same bedchamber; during the two months of Mary's last illness Jane Dormer was ever at her bedside, and it was into her hands that the dying queen committed her jewels to be handed over to Elizabeth. When Philip II came to England to marry Mary, he was accompanied by Don Gomez Suarez de Figueroa of Cordova, count of Feria, between whom and the queen's favourite maid of honour arose the attachment which led to their ultimate union. Jane's remarkable beauty and the sweetness of her disposition caused her hand to be sought in marriage by several English noblemen, among whom were Edward Courtenay, earl of Devonshire, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Earl of Nottingham, but by Mary's advice they were one and all rejected in favour of the Spaniard. The queen took the greatest interest in the match,