![William Darell, History of Dover Castle (1797), trans](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/William_Darell%2C_History_of_Dover_Castle_%281797%29%2C_trans._Alexander_Campbell.jpg)
William Darell or Darrell (died after 16 February 1580) was an English
Anglican clergyman and
antiquarian.
Born in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, Darell first appears in the historical record when in 1546 he was presented to the
rectory in his home town of
Little Chart
Little Chart is a village and civil parish, situated north-west of Ashford in Kent, South East England. The parish lies south of the M20 motorway.
Geography
Within the parish boundaries is the linear settlement village centre by the old water ...
. A
pluralist, Darell went on to hold many
benefices
A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...
, rectories, and
vicarages during his ecclesiastical career. This included notably a
prebend at
Canterbury Cathedral, where he was among those who elected
Matthew Parker
Matthew Parker (6 August 1504 – 17 May 1575) was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder (with a p ...
to the
Archbishopric of Canterbury
The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses).
Overview
The Province consist ...
and subsequently worked under Parker as an antiquarian. However a succession of controversies within the church—including one where he was found smuggling a woman of "suspect behaviour" into his Canterbury quarters—precipitated a loss of favour in the 1570s. After he lost his prebend at Canterbury in 1580, Darrel disappeared from the historical record.
Biography
Darell was born into the ancient Darell family of Calehill,
Little Chart
Little Chart is a village and civil parish, situated north-west of Ashford in Kent, South East England. The parish lies south of the M20 motorway.
Geography
Within the parish boundaries is the linear settlement village centre by the old water ...
, Kent] who remained loyal to the Catholic Church after the
English Reformation; nothing more is known of his early life. He first appears in the historical record when he is presented to the rectory of Little Chart in 1546. By 1548, he had the benefice of St Andrew's,
Droitwich
Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester.
The ...
,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
; thereafter he found himself in the rectories of
Milton-next-Gravesend, Kent in 1549 and
Chawton
Chawton is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. The village lies within the South Downs National Park and is famous as the home of Jane Austen for the last eight years of her life.
History
Chawton's re ...
,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
in 1553. When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, Darell was living in
Lenham
Lenham is a market village and civil parish in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses (one of which is a hotel), a couple of restaurants, and a tea ...
, Kent.
On both 23 September 1553 and 24 March 1554, Darell was assigned to take over the third prebend of Canterbury Cathedral, Kent from the previous incumbent Robert Goldeston. Darell also attended
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
, where he graduated BA on 24 April 1554 and MA on 29 May 1554. At Canterbury, Darell was among five-person chapter who elected Matthew Parker to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. He was tasked with announcing the chapter's decision and presenting it to Parker for his approval. Darell thereafter advanced through the ranks of the Cathedral, becoming
subdean in 1560. Under Archbishop Parker, Darell was among those encouraged in antiquarianism. He authored a work on the castles of Kent, entitled ''Castra in campo Cantiano ab antiquo aedita nobilium ope et diligentia'', dedicated to his patron,
William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham,
lord
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
of the
Manor of Cobham, Kent
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
and
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Darell was also a diligent collector of manuscripts. Among his collection was a copy of the ''
Flores Historiarum
The ''Flores Historiarum'' (Flowers of History) is the name of two different (though related) Latin chronicles by medieval English historians that were created in the 13th century, associated originally with the Abbey of St Albans.
Wendover's '' ...
'', a Latin chronicle of English history, with 14th-century additions, formerly in the collection of
John Bale
John Bale (21 November 1495 – November 1563) was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory in Ireland. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English (on the subject of King John), and developed ...
; a 15th-century copy of the medieval
''Brut'' Chronicle; and a 15th-century collection on the
heraldry of the Irish nobility.
Darell also received preferment elsewhere while at Canterbury, serving as the
chancellor of
Bangor University from 1565 to 1570 and (for a short time) the prebend of
Flixton in 1568. He meanwhile received the rectories of
Upper Hardres
Upper Hardres is a village and civil parish in the City of Canterbury, in the district of Kent, England.
The name of the Hardres family is perpetuated in the twin villages of Upper Hardres and Lower Hardres (pronounced 'hards'), on the Roman ...
, Kent (1559), of
Lower Hardres
Lower Hardres is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lower Hardres and Nackington, in the City of Canterbury District of Kent, England.
History
The name of the Hardres family is perpetuated in the twin villages of Upper Hard ...
(1561), and of
Kingweston,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, (1564), as well as the vicarages of
Monkton, Kent (1562) and of
Benenden
Benenden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald, to the west of Tenterden. In addition to the main village, Iden Green, East End, Dingleden and Standen Street settle ...
, Kent (1563). Darell gained favour at court, and was one of Elizabeth's chaplains by 1564. In 1569, Elizabeth made him a commissioner for Berkshire.
In 1567, while obtaining an attorney (one Henry Style of Westminster) in the event he left England, Darell described himself as "Deane of
Fernes in Irelande". This implies that Darell is the same "Mr. Dorrell" who was proposed to be
Archbishop of Armagh. The see went vacant in 1567, after the death of previous incumbent
Adam Loftus. Among those subsequently proposed to the see was Darell. This nomination came to the attention of
Edmund Grindal
Edmund Grindal ( 15196 July 1583) was Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. Though born far from the centres of political and religious power, he had risen rapidly in the church durin ...
, Bishop of London, who apparently already regarded Darell as, in his biographer
John Strype
John Strype (1 November 1643 – 11 December 1737) was an English clergyman, historian and biographer from London. He became a merchant when settling in Petticoat Lane. In his twenties, he became perpetual curate of Theydon Bois, Essex and lat ...
's description, "corrupt in religion; though otherwise outwardly complying." Grindal assiduously opposed this nomination. On 19 November, he wrote to
Secretary of State William Cecil to recommend against Darell; he spoke of one "poor scholar" in Ireland who had described to him how he dreaded Darell's election, believing his nomination would ultimately "hinder the course of religion in that country." Grindal moreover spoke of his own negative experiences with Darell: "the said Dorrell hath been heretofore
convented before me and other commissioners for
sundry his misdemeanours, and therefore I know him to be an unfit man for so high an office". He recommended one "Dr. Spenser, Parson of Hadley", but also offered to send forth several candidates, from whom the Queen could choose. Ultimately,
Thomas Lancaster, previously
Bishop of Kildare
The Bishop of Kildare was an episcopal title which took its name after the town of Kildare in County Kildare, Ireland. The title is no longer in use by any of the main Christian churches having been united with other bishoprics. In the Roman Cath ...
, was elected to the Archbishopric, most likely on the advice of
Sir Henry Sidney, Elizabeth's
Lord Deputy
The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland. The plural form is '' ...
in Ireland. Cecil was apparently pleased with this nomination.
This was not the end of Darell's controversies within the church. Darell developed such extensive debts that he could no longer afford to pay them back, even with his many benefices, so the Cathedral chapter was forced to bail him out. Part of his prebend wages were seized as restitution. Rumours abounded about Darell's sexual misconduct at the chapel, culminating in a case brought before the ecclesiastical courts. Clemence Ward, a lady of "suspect behaviour" living in a nearby parish, had been seen entering a laundry basket destined for Darell's residence in Canterbury. One of the Cathedral lay clerks set upon the basket with a knife, stabbing Ward in the arm in the process, and thus substantiating the plot. Though nothing more is known of the case, as historian Andrew Butcher put it, "few stories
..could be better designed to destroy Darrell's reputation". The
Privy Council wrote to the ecclesiastical commissioners in the diocese of Canterbury concerning "certain horrible offences" committed by Darell, requesting he be cited before them. These offences went unmentioned in the letter, and nothing more is recorded of the Privy Council's request. However, Darell did subsequently lose some of his ecclesiastical positions: the rectory of Monkton, Kent in 1579 and the Canterbury prebend by 16 February 1580. His misconduct also apparently lost him favour at court, as he received no further preferment from Elizabeth.
Nothing more of Darell's life is known, including his date of death.
Legacy
Darell's ''Castra in campo'' was never fully published; relevant selections were translated for Alexander Campbell's ''The History of Dover Castle'' (1786, 1797). But, as biographer
Peter Sherlock put it, Darell was "perhaps of more significance as a collector". His copy of the ''Flores'' is now held at
Lambeth Palace Library
Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the oppos ...
(MS 1106); his ''Brut'', the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
(Stowe MS 69); and his heraldic collection, the
College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the British Sovere ...
(MS B 22).
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranston, David
16th-century English Anglican priests
Alumni of the University of Oxford
English antiquarians
People from Little Chart
People from Lenham