Description: William Dugdale [1595-1686, antiquarian and herald, no direct Derbyshire connection, but did undertake heraldic visitations in the county], seated 3/4-length at table with books, aged 50, 1656, drawn and engraved by Wenceslaus Holler.
Born at Shustoke, near Coleshill, Warwickshire, of an old Lancashire family, and he was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. To please his elderly father, he married at seventeen, to Margaret Huntbach, and lived with his wife's family until his father's death in 1624, when he went to live at Fillongley, near Shustoke, an estate formerly purchased for him by his father. In 1625 he purchased the manor of Blyth, near Shustoke, and moved there. He had already shown an inclination for antiquarian studies, and in 1635, meeting Sir Symon Archer (1581-1662), himself a learned antiquary, who was then employed in collecting materials for a history of Warwickshire, he accompanied him to London. There he made the acquaintance of Sir Christopher Hatton, Baron Hatton of Kirby, Comptroller of the Household, and Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, then Earl Marshal of England. In 1638 Dugdale was created a pursuivant of arms extraordinary by the name of Blanch Lyon, and in 1639 he was promoted to the office of Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary. He now had a lodging in the College of Arms, and spent much of his time in London examining the records in the Tower and the Cottonian and other collections of manuscripts. In 1641 Sir Christopher Hatton, foreseeing the war and dreading the ruin and spoliation of the Church, commissioned him to make exact drafts of all the monuments in Westminster Abbey and the principal churches in England, including Peterborough Cathedral, Ely Cathedral, Norwich Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral. Newark, Beverley Minster, Southwell Minster, Kingston-upon-Hull, York Minster, Selby Abbey, Chester Cathedral, Lichfield Cathedral. From wikipedia.