Garter Principal King of Arms: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Player's_cigarettes_Garter_King_of_Arms.jpeg|thumb|upright|Ceremonial dress]]

 

Garter is responsible to the [[Earl Marshal]] for the running of the college. He is the principal adviser to the [[British monarch|sovereign of the United Kingdom]] with respect to ceremonial and [[heraldry]], with specific responsibility for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and, with the exception of Canada, for [[Commonwealth realms]] of which [[Charles III]] is the sovereign. He also serves as the king of arms of the [[Order of the Garter]] and his seal and signature appear on all grants of arms made by the college.

 

 

The current Garter Principal King of Arms is [[David White (officer of arms)|David White]].

 

=== Foundation ===

 

This was accepted until Hugh Stanford London published evidence which appeared to date Bruges' appointment two years earlier than Anstis suggested.<ref>Begent 1995, p. 134</ref> William Bruges' father, Richard, left a will dated 4 July 1415 and split into two parts: a testament dealing with his burial, charitable bequests and legacies to his wife, and a voluntas, which dealt with personal bequests. Although the testament (recorded in the London registry) makes no mention of anyone other than Richard's wife, the voluntas (copied in Archbishop [[Henry Chichele]]'s registers) makes mention of his children. Reference is made to his son William, variously called "Gien", "Gyen" and "Gartere", and William's wife, called "Agnes Garter".<ref>Begent 1995, p. 137</ref> The other register entries around the voluntas date to 1418 and 1419, so E. F. Jacob, the editor of a printed version of the register, suggests that the references to Garter may be a later gloss.<ref>Begent, p. 137, citing Jacob 1937, pp. 188, note 4</ref> But, Stanford London argued that later annotations would be consistent and refer to him as either Garter and Guyenne or simply Garter throughout, while Agnes would not have been called just Garter if it were a gloss. Instead, he suggests that Richard forgot to call his newly appointed son Garter at first and later included it alongside his old title in the will.<ref>Stanford London 1970, pp. 13–14</ref>

===List===

{| class="wikitable"

! Dates of office {{refn|The start date is the date of the Patent instituting them as Garter except when it is given in italics. Appointees died in office unless otherwise stated.|group = "nb"}}

! Ref

|-

|15 July 1536 – 2 January 1550

|Barker's father was from [[Stokesley]] in Yorkshire, and his mother from a Newcastle family called Carlill or Carlisle; one of his uncles was [[Christopher Carlill]], Norroy King of Arms. He was in Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk's service as [[Lisle Pursuivant]] (''c.'' 1513) and then [[Suffolk Herald]] (''c''. 1517), before being appointed Richmond Herald at the college in 1522 and Norroy in June 1536. He was attached to foreign missions between 1514 and 1544, the early instances with the Duke of Suffolk and later including work with the English embassy in Spain and at the peace talks at Cambrai in 1529. He also oversaw the funeral of Henry VIII and the coronation of [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]] and managed to maintain reasonably friendly relations with the provincial Kings of Arms.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Gilbert Dethick.svg|100px]]

|29 April 1550 – 3 October 1584

|Dethick claimed descent from [[Derbyshire]] gentry, but this is unlikely; for his father was a German-born armourer made a [[denization|denizen]] by Henry VIII. He may have been in royal service before his first appointment at the college, as [[Hampnes Pursuivant Extraordinary|Hampnes Pursuivant]], in 1536; promotions to Rouge Croix (1540) and [[Richmond Herald|Richmond]] (1541) followed and in 1547 he became Norroy King of Arms. He was a member of the original [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]] and was often sent on missions abroad as a herald. He travelled with Lord Somerset to Scotland in 1549 and was nearly shot at [[Musselburgh]]; in England, he was sent to force the surrender of [[Kett's Rebellion|rebels led by Robert Kett]]. Described as a "sound" genealogist, he also made 140 grants of arms as Garter and secured the college's future home at Derby Place from [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]].

|-

! colspan="5" align="center" | ''Vacant between 1584 and 1586; Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, acted as Garter''<ref>Godfrey and Wagner, p. 47</ref>

|21 April 1586 – 10 December 1606 (dismissed)

|The second son of Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter, William Dethick was educated at [[St John's College, Cambridge]]. His father also tutored him and secured his appointment as Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1567; he succeeded him as Garter and bribed the signet clerks to include a clause in his patent allowing him to make visitations, arousing tension with the provincial kings. A new patent was eventually regranted, removing the rights, but Dethick garnered controversy for verifying false pedigrees, his poor behaviour and quarrelling with fellow heralds. He had treasonously supported the marriage proposal of [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], and the Duke of Norfolk, but [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] forgave him and it eventually earned him the support of [[James VI and I|James I]]. His critics and enemies put enough pressure on the King, however, for Dethick to be dismissed in 1604; although defiant, he backed down and accepted an annuity two years later, before dying in 1612.

|-

|[[File:Arms of William Segar.svg|100px]]

|17 January 1607 – 10 or 13 December 1633

|Segar's parentage cannot be confirmed, but he was of Dutch origin and trained as a scrivener. He was appointed [[Portcullis Pursuivant]] in 1585 and [[Somerset Herald]] three years later, before Norroy King of Arms in 1597 (patent 1602). He sided with Garter Dethick against successive [[Clarenceux King of Arms|Clarenceux Kings of Arms]], before being appointed Deputy Garter in 1603. He was appointed Garter in January 1604, but could not obtain a patent until Dethick finally resigned in 1607. One of Segar's rivals, [[Ralph Brooke]], tricked him into confirming a false coat of arms to a pretend gentleman{{clarify|date=July 2020}} in 1616; James I had them both imprisoned for several days. Segar authored at least 13 manuscript and printed works, and has been described as a "conscientious herald and a formidable scholar", but like many of his contemporaries, "he authorized many pedigrees giving most improbable descents from fabulous ancestors".<ref>Adolph 2004c</ref>

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir John Borough.svg|100px]]

|27 December 1633 – 21 October 1643

|Borough's maternal grandfather was a Brabanter, but parents lived at Sandwich in Kent. He was part of Sir [[Francis Bacon]]'s household by 1618, and a Member of Parliament for [[Sandwich (UK Parliament constituency)|Sandwich]] (1621) and [[Horsham (UK Parliament constituency)|Horsham]] (1624–26). By his first marriage, he was connected with Sir [[Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington|Robert Cotton]], who may have helped his appointment as Keeper of the Records in the [[Tower of London]] in 1623; when Bacon fell from power, it may have been Cotton who assisted Borough in obtaining the Earl of Arundel's patronage and he entered the College as [[Mowbray Herald Extraordinary]] in 1623. Later that year, he was appointed Norroy King of Arms. He accompanied [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] on his trip to Scotland in 1633 and was ambassador to the Holy Roman Emperor in 1636. Despite being highly regarded in his lifetime for his antiquarian knowledge, Borough wrote only one book: ''The Soveraignty of the British Seas''.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Henry St George.svg|100px]]

![[Henry St George|Sir Henry St George]] the elder

|6 April 1644 – 5 November 1644<ref name="Godfrey and Wagner 1963, pp. 50-51">Godfrey and Wagner 1963, pp. 50–51</ref>

|

|-

![[Edward Walker (officer of arms)|Sir Edward Walker]]

|26 February 1645 – 10 February 1677

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Edward Bysshe.svg|100px]]

|''Intruded {{Circa|1643}}, confirmed by Parliament 20 October 1646'' – 1660 (deposed)

|The eldest son of a Surrey gentleman, Bysshe was a Member of Parliament for [[Bletchingly]], [[Reigate (UK Parliament constituency)|Reigate]] and [[Gatton (UK Parliament constituency)|Gatton]]. He was a Parliamentarian who took the covenant, intruded in Garter's office ({{Circa|1643}}) and served on committees to regulate the heralds in 1641 and 1645. Parliament confirmed him as Garter on 20 October 1646 and as Clarenceux King of Arms in 1650. Although he resigned from the latter eight years later, he was re-appointed in 1661, shortly after he was deposed as Garter during the Restoration. According to Godfrey and Wagner, he was a good armourist; however, his visitations provide only brief accounts of the families concerned, and he neglected his duties, both parliamentary and heraldic, from the 1660s. Despite these failings, he had ensured that the college and its records remained open during the Interregnum, much to the benefit of antiquaries, including his colleague Sir William Dugdale.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir William Dugdale.svg|100px]]

|26 April 1677 – 10 February 1686

|The son of a Warwickshire clergyman, Dugdale was privately educated before attending a free school in Coventry and never went to university. His earliest antiquarian works were concerned with his native county, where, inspired and helped by other antiquaries, he collected material for a history. His talents earned him the respect of leading antiquarians, including Sir Henry Spelman, and as the Civil War developed, Dugdale travelled around England recording records, coats of arms and inscriptions in English cathedrals and churches. This work culminated in ''Monasticon Anglicanum'', a work which helped to establish the use of charters as historical evidence; his other great works include ''The Antiquities of Warwickshire'' and ''The Baronage of England'', which have helped to solidify his legacy as a great antiquarian. According to the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography|Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', "the scale of his operations was greater than any previous endeavour, and its achievements were astonishing".<ref name="Oxford Dugdale">Graham Parry, "Dugdale, Sir William (1605–1686)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2004; online edn, Oct 2009</ref> Dugdale had been Blanch Lyon, Rouge Croix, Chester and Norroy before his Gartership and created, donated or contributed to a number of valuable heraldic and genealogical records at the college, in addition to the ten visitations he personally conducted.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Henry St George.svg|100px]]

|16 June 1703 – 1715

|The eighth son of Sir Henry St George, Garter, Henry the younger became Garter after appointments as Richmond (1660), Norroy (1677) and Clarenceux (1680). He was remembered by contemporaries as "a timorous animal" and "incommunicative, sordid and of little learning", but he visited 12 counties as Clarenceux and donated the profits from six towards the rebuilding of the college after the Great Fire of London. His manuscript collection was sold after his death and later sold again at auction; some have returned to the college, but most remain scattered in collections.

|-

|[[File:Arms of John Anstis.svg|100px]]

|2 April 1714 (reversionary) – 1744

|Anstis was the son of the registrar of the archdeaconry of Cornwall. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, he entered the Middle Temple in 1690 and became high steward of Cornish tinners two years later; he was called to the Bar in 1699 and conducted work for the House of Commons in 1701. He published ''Curia Militaris'', a defence of the Earl Marshal's jurisdiction in the Court of Chivalry. In 1702 he was elected to Parliament for St Germains and tended to follow the Tory line, but declined to stand in 1705. He was nominated as Carlisle Pursuivant Extraordinary and Norfolk Herald in 1707, was re-elected to Parliament in 1711, appointed Keeper of the Record in 1712 and received a reversionary patent for Garter's office in 1714. He duly claimed Garter after St George's death, although John Vanbrugh was nominated instead and Anstis was then in prison as a suspected Jacobite. After a lengthy legal debate, he was confirmed as Garter on 20 April 1718, took his oath in April the next year and went on to oversee George II's coronation in 1727. His son John was jointly Garter with him from 1727.

|-

|[[File:Arms of John Anstis.svg|100px]]

|9 June 1727 (with father) – 5 December 1754

|The seventh son of John Anstis, Garter, the younger Anstis was educated privately before matriculating at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1725. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed genealogist to the Order of the Bath and he joined the College two years later as Blanc Coursier Herald. From 1727 he was jointly Garter with his father until the latter's death on 4 March 1744, after which he served alone. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and received an LLD degree from Oxford University in 1749.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Stephen Martin Leake.svg|100px]]

|19 December 1754 – 24 March 1773

|Leake was born Stephen Martin, the son of a naval officer from Essex; his maternal uncle, Admiral Sir John Leake, left his estate to Martin's parents on the condition that they adopt his surname, which they did in 1721. Despite this and work at the Navy Office, the family lost out in the South Seas crash and Leake was forced to find employment. After joining the Society of Antiquaries and publishing ''Nummi Britannici historia'', he joined the College as Lancaster in 1727 and was promoted to Norroy in 1729 and Clarenceux in 1741. Leake was less interested in genealogy than in the rights and history of the heralds; he petitioned for the college to have a monopoly on the researching of arms and unsuccessfully tried to revive the visitations, a proposal which Anstis and the government opposed. He also opened the college's register for Dissenting and Jewish births and carried out two Garter missions. On his death, his collections passed to his brother, and they were eventually bought by the college.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Charles Townley.svg|100px]]

|27 April 1773 – 7 June 1774

|Born at Tower Hill in London, Townley was the son of a merchant and educated at the Merchant Taylors' School from 1727. He bought his appointment as York Herald in 1735; he was promoted to Norroy in 1751 and Clarenceux in 1755, but, according to his predecessor Stephen Martin Leake, he received a large fortune around 1755 and neglected his heraldic duties thereafter. He was nonetheless knighted in 1761. A number of his collections are in the possession of the college, including transcribed memorial inscriptions.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Thomas Browne.svg|100px]]

|2 March 1780 – 27 March 1784

|Bigland was the son of a Middlesex tallow chandler whose ancestors have been traced to Westmorland and Lancashire. He was apprenticed to a cheesemonger in 1728 and, after 9 years service, he entered his own trade and carried out his practice for over 20 years. He travelled to the Low Countries and Scotland and supplied cheese to the allied armies during the War of the Austrian Succession; it was on these travels that he began noting down memorial inscriptions, a pursuit to which he would devote his life. He compiled a huge collection of inscriptions relating to Gloucestershire, where he travelled extensively from 1750 onwards. These interests brought him to the college, where he was appointed Bluemantle Pursuivant in 1757 and promoted to Somerset Herald in 1759, Norroy in 1773 and Clarenceux in 1774. A competent and methodical genealogist and draughtsman, he took a particular interest in parish registers and campaigned for their indexing and the inclusion of greater detail in them. After his death, the majority of his Gloucestershire notes and transcriptions were published, although a number remained in manuscript form until the 1990s.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Isaac Heard.svg|100px]]

|1 May 1784 – 29 April 1822

|A native of Devon, Heard was educated at Honiton Grammar School before serving in the Royal Navy between 1745 and 1751. He then embarked on a career as a merchant: first in Bilbao, Spain, and then in London. An appointment as Bluemantle Pursuivant followed in 1759, with a promotion to Lancaster Herald two years later; in 1774, he was appointed Norroy King of Arms and [[Gentleman Usher of the Scarlet Rod|Brunswick Herald]], before a promotion to Clarenceux in 1780; he served as Earl Marshal's Secretary (1782–84) and resigned as Brunswick in 1814. Heard was a proponent of the landscape heraldry which proved popular in the late Georgian period, and, inspired by his earlier travels, took a precocious interest in American genealogy. As a long-serving herald, his genealogical practice was large and much of his manuscript collection ended up in the college.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir George Nayler.svg|100px]]

|11 May 1822 – 28 October 1831

|The son of a Gloucestershire surgeon, Nayler practised as a miniature painter before buying his way into the offices of Blanc Coursier Herald and Genealogist of the Order of the Bath in 1792. He used the same means to obtain a place in the College as Bluemantle Pursuivant a year later; promotion to York Herald followed in 1794 after the accidental death of its incumbent. Further appointments as King of Arms to the Royal Guelphic Order and the Order of St Michael and St George (1815 and 1818 respectively) followed before he became Clarenceux King of Arms in 1820 and served as deputy Garter at George IV's coronation in 1821. As Garter, he continued to run a large practice at the College and conducted missions to France, Denmark, Russia and Portugal. Much of his earlier heraldic career involved disputes with the other heralds about his sole right to record pedigrees of the Knight of the Bath; despite objections, he compiled 47 volumes, which are now in the college's possession. He also worked on a history of George IV's coronation, which was only partially published in his lifetime, and a manuscript history of the Order of the Bath, also owned by the college.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Ralph Bigland.svg|100px]]

|6 July 1961 – 1978 (retired)

|Wagner was the son of a schoolmaster and a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford. His first appointment at the college was as Portcullis in 1931, but the Second World War interrupted this. He served in War Office and then the Ministry of Town and County Planning; a keen architectural historian, he helped to draw up guidelines on listing buildings. He was promoted to Richmond in 1943 and left the civil service for the college in 1946. As Garter, Wagner oversaw the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill and the investiture of the Prince of Wales, and was the first director of the Heralds' Museum; after retiring as Garter, he served as Clarenceux until his death in 1995.<ref name="Ailes 2004b">Ailes 2004b</ref> A leading genealogist and historian of the college, Wagner published a number of important books on the topics, including ''Heralds of England'', ''Heralds and Heraldry in the Middles Ages'', ''Pedigree and Progress'' and ''English Genealogy'', alongside several catalogues of the college's manuscript collection;<ref name="Ailes 2004b" /><ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/20/obituaries/sir-anthony-wagner-86-dies-medievalist-and-senior-herald.html|title = Sir Anthony Wagner, 86, Dies; Medievalist and Senior Herald|last = Thomas, Jr|first = Robert McG.|date = 20 May 1995|work = The New York Times|access-date = 12 August 2015}}</ref> in 1957, Oxford University awarded him the degree of DLitt and he was twice knighted, as KCB and KCVO.<ref name="Ailes 2004b" />

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Colin Cole.svg|100px]]

![[Alexander Colin Cole|Sir Colin Cole]]

|2 October 1978 – 1992 (retired)

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Conrad Swan.svg|100px]]

|5 October 1992 – 1995 (retired)

|Swan was a native of Canada and the son of an officer in the Royal Canadian Medical Corps. He was educated at the Universities of Western Ontario and Cambridge and served in Europe and India during the Second World War. He was appointed to the college in 1962 as Rouge Dragon. York followed in 1968.<ref>"Swan, Sir Conrad (Marshall John Fisher)", ''Who's Who'', 2015 [online edition April 2014] (Oxford University Press)</ref> He died in 2019.

|-

|[[File:Arms of Sir Peter Gwynn-Jones.svg|100px]]

* Begent, P. J. (1995). "The Creation of the Office of Garter King of Arms". ''Coat of Arms''. New Series. vol. 11. issue 172. pp.&nbsp;134–140

* Cheesman, C. E. A. (2004). "Leake, Stephen Martin (1702–1773)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press.

* Cooper, Thompson; Marchand, J. A. (rev.) (2004). "Browne, Thomas (1702–1780)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press.

* Cooper, Thompson; Marchand, J. A. (rev.) (January 2008). "Townley, Sir Charles (1713–1774)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press.

* Crossette, J. S. (1983). [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/bysshe-edward-1615-79 "Bysshe, Edward (c.1615-79), of Smallfield Place, Burstow, Surr."]. ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690''. London: Secker & Warburg (for the History of Parliament Trust).

* Godfrey, Walter H.; Wagner, Anthony (1963). [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/bk16/pp38-74 ''Survey of London, Monograph 16: College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street'']. London: Guild & School of Handicraft.

* Handley, Stuart (January 2008). "Anstis, John (1669–1744)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press.

* Wagner, Anthony (1967). ''Heralds of England''. London: Her Majesty's Majesty's Stationery Office.

* Wagner, Sir Anthony; [[Rowse, A. L.]] (1992). ''John Anstis: Garter King of Arms''. London: Stationery Office.

* Woodcock, Thomas (2004a). "Burke, Sir (John) Bernard (1814–1892)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press.

* Woodcock, Thomas (2004b). "Woods, Sir Albert William (1816–1904)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press.

*[http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk The College of Arms]

*[http://elizabethan.org/heraldry/garter.html ''Rights and Duties of Garter King of Arms''] from the ''Constitutions of the Officers of the Order of the Garter'' circa 1522

 

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