Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/425

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ceeded to the ‘Tree of Reformation,’ near Norwich, and promised a free pardon to the followers of Kett the tanner if they would quietly disperse. It appears, however, that the officer of arms was York herald, and not Norroy (Russell, Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk, pp. 59, 73–6). The Marquis of Northampton when commissioned to invest Henry II of France with the order of the Garter was accompanied by Dethick. In the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, Dethick frequently went abroad on similar missions, and at home it became his duty to proclaim declarations of war and treaties of peace on various occasions. He died in London on 3 Oct. 1584, and was buried in the church of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf.

He married, first, Alice, daughter of Leonard Peterson, a Dutchman (she died 13 Jan. 1572); secondly, Jane, daughter of Richard Duncomb, esq., of Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and widow of William Naylor, one of the six clerks in chancery. By the former marriage he had three sons: Nicholas Dethick, Windsor herald; Sir William Dethick [q. v.]; and Henry Dethick, B.D., LL.B., chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle, who died in or about 1613. The children of the second marriage were Robert; and Mary, wife of Thomas Butler, barrister-at-law, of Orwell, Cambridgeshire.

Dethick was a good scholar and a member of the old Society of Antiquaries (Archæologia, i. p. xvi). His works are: 1. ‘The manner of carryinge and deliveringe of the Garter to Henry II, king of France, in the time of Edward VI (1551), the Lord Marquess of Northampton, Ambassador, with the Bishop of Ely, and Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter.’ In Harl. MS. 1355, art. 6. 2. Heraldical papers and collections. Harl. MS. 5826; Addit. MS. 10110. 3. ‘Dethickes Guiftes,’ being his grants and confirmations of armorial bearings (1549–84), with the arms in trick. Addit. MS. 12454; cf. Harl. MS. 5847.

A private plate of his portrait has been engraved by Audinet, and another portrait, from an initial letter in a manuscript, will be found in Dallaway's ‘Heraldry’

[Addit. MSS. 14293, 15215, 15565, 17434; Anstis's Order of the Garter, i. 381–6; Cotton MSS. Cal. B. ix. 384*, Faust. E. i. 10, 31; Dallaway's Heraldry, p. 174; Dugdale's St. Paul's, p. 51; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, No. 15041; Guillim's Heraldry, p. 353; Harl. MSS. 1359, art. 1, 3, 1412, art. 18, 1438, art. 2, 1441, art. 36, 37, 1453, art. 6; Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep. iv. 596, viii. 261, viii. Append. pt. iii. p. 35; Report on the Gawdy Papers, p. 149; Noble's College of Arms, pp. 120, 126, 128, 133, 142, 143, 144, 151, 164; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. v. 366, 2nd ser. xi. 420, xii. 383; Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 670.]

T. C.

DETHICK, Sir WILLIAM (1543–1612), Garter king-of-arms, second son of Sir Gilbert Dethick [q. v.], born in 1543, was introduced into the College of Arms at an early age, and in 1564 went to France with his father to present the order of the Garter to Charles IX. On 11 Feb. 1566–7 he was appointed Rouge Croix pursuivant, and in that capacity he in 1568 accompanied his father, with the Earl of Sussex, to invest the emperor Maximilian II. Leaving the earl's suite at Salzburg, he travelled in Italy. He was promoted to the office of York herald by patent 24 March 1569–70 (Rymer, Fœdera, ed. 1713, xv. 679). He now presumed to issue grants of arms, and in issuing these documents used a seal inscribed ‘Gulielmus Dethicke armig. Primarius Heraldus Eboracensis,’ thus invading the office of Norroy, the king-of-arms of the north (Addit. MS. 25247, f. 291 b). By patent, 21 April 1586, he was created Garter king-of-arms in succession to his father. He induced Nicasius or Yetzworth, one of the clerks of the signet, to insert words in the bill with a view to usurp the offices of the provincial kings-of-arms, Norroy and Clarenceux, who had the sole right of granting arms, with the consent of the earl-marshal. Glover, Somerset herald, complained to the queen, who ordered Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Francis Roe to investigate the matter, and they reprehended Nicasius for his oversight so sharply that ‘the poor old man for very grief died’ (Harl. MS. 1453, p. 82). Under the terms of his patent Dethick interfered with Clarenceux when that official visited Lincolnshire, and long and acrimonious disputes ensued. Dethick was accused of having in 1571 emblazoned in a pedigree the arms of the Duke of Norfolk on the right, and those of the queen of Scots on the left. It was further alleged that he had granted the royal arms of England, with very little difference, to one Daukin, a plasterer. A royal commission suspended Dethick from his office, to which, however, he was restored by the clemency of the queen. In August 1587 he assisted in conveying the remains of Mary Queen of Scots from Fotheringhay to Peterborough Cathedral, where they were ‘royally and sumptuously interred by the said Garter’ (Nichols, Progresses of James I, i. 252).

In 1593 he became a member of the old Society of Antiquaries (Hearne, Curious Discourses, ed. 1771, ii. 431). In 1595 he was censured by the commissioners for exe-