Gilbert Dethick

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.

At the death of William Fellow, Norroy King of Arms, in December 1546, Dethick was nominated to succeed him, but it was not until the reign of Edward VI, on 16 August 1547, that his appointment was confirmed by letters patent.

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.

In 1547 Sir Gilbert accompanied Lord Protector Somerset in his expedition against the Scots, and in 1549 he delivered a summons to surrender to rebels in Kent, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

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.

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.