Gilbert Dethick
Sir Gilbert Dethick
Family origins
Gilbert Dethick claimed descent from a family originally seated at Dethick Hall in Derbyshire. However, Ralph Brooke, York Herald of Arms in Ordinary, claimed his progenitor was one Robert Dericke, a Dutchman who came to England with Erasmus Crukenez, yeoman armourer to Henry VIII. Robert married Agatha, daughter of Matthias Leydendecker, a Dutch barber from Acon, near the Dutch border with Germany, who also became an armourer to Henry VIII.
This Robert and Agatha had three sons: Dericke, Matthias and Gilbert. Gilbert later procured denization from Parliament for himself and his brothers. This alone casts doubt upon the later claim of a Derbyshire origin. All three brothers prospered in England.
Personal details
Gilbert Dethick first married Alice, daughter of Leonard Peterson, a Dutchman, but Alice died on 13 January 1572. Dethick then married Jane, daughter of Richard Duncomb of Moreton, Buckinghamshire and widow of William Naylor, one of the six clerks in chancery. In his first marriage, Dethick had three sons: Nicholas Dethick, who would become Windsor Herald of Arms in Ordinary; Sir William Dethick, who would become Garter Principal King of Arms like his father, and Henry Dethick, Chancellor of the Diocese of Carlisle. In his second marriage, Dethick had one son, Robert, and a daughter, Mary.
For notes on William Flower, Norroy king-of-arms, and Robert Glover, Portcullis, see the introduction by
Heraldic career
Dethick entered the
Dethick served his monarch in many capacities. It is presumed that he was an excellent linguist. He was sent on several missions to the Danish court to reclaim ships and was also sent to John III, Duke of Cleves to negotiate the marriage of his daughter, Anne, with Henry VIII. He was also sent to represent Henry at the Diet of Ratisbon. He was rewarded by Henry VIII with a mansion and acre of land at Poplar, in the parish of Stepney, where his descendants resided for almost two centuries.
In 1547 Sir Gilbert accompanied Lord Protector Somerset in his expedition against the
During the reigns of both Mary and Elizabeth, Dethick was sent abroad on diplomatic missions, and at home it became his duty to proclaim declarations of war and treaties of peace. As the public voice of the monarch, he may have held an exalted view of his own dignity. Sir Gilbert Dethick was "unmanageable when a herald, very unsociable, insolent and tempestuous," according to Mark Noble's History of the College of Arms, p. 186, 201.
Sir Gilbert died in London 3 October 1584, and some records infer he was buried in the Church of St Benet Paul's Wharf. However, he is listed in St Paul's Cathedral on a monument in the crypt, as one of the important graves lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Arms
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See also
- Pursuivant
- Herald
- King of Arms
References
- Citations
- ^ Godfrey, Walter H; Wagner, Anthony (1963). "'Garter King of Arms', in Survey of London Monograph 16, College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street (London, 1963), pp. 38-74". british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
- Bibliography
- Dictionary of National Biography, Dethick, Sir Gilbert (1519?–1584), Garter king-of-arms, by Thompson Cooper. Published 1888.