Sir William Dormer, KB (died 17 May 1575) was a Tudor knight, captain and politician.

Biography

William Dormer was born before 1514, the only child of Sir Robert Dormer of

West Wycombe West Wycombe is a small village famed for its manor houses and its hills. It is three miles west of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The historic village is largely a National Trust property and receives a large annual influx of touri ...

and of

Wing, Buckinghamshire Wing, known in antiquated times as Wyng, is a village and civil parish in east Buckinghamshire, England. The village is on the main A418 road between Aylesbury and Leighton Buzzard. It is about north-east of Aylesbury, west of Leighton Buz ...

, and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

(died 2 or 8 July 1552), and his wife Jane Newdigate (d. 1568), daughter of John Newdigate (died 15 August 1528) of

Harefield, Middlesex Harefield is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, northwest of Charing Cross near Greater London's boundary with Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the north. The population at the 2011 Census was 7,399. H ...

, by Amphyllis Neville (d. 15 July 1544). From 1535 until 1559, Dormer's main residence was

Eythrope Eythrope (previously Ethorp) is a hamlet and country house in the parish of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located to the south east of the main village of Waddesdon. It was bought in the 1870s by a branch of the Rothschild fa ...

in Buckinghamshire. A William Dormer was in the service of

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...

, and considered for transfer to royal service in 1538."William was a baptismal name much favoured by the Dormer family and the career of the only son of Sir Robert Dormer before the 1540s is all but impossible to disentangle from those of his numerous kinsmen". If the subject of this biography was that William Dormer then his marriage to Mary, daughter of

Sir William Sidney Sir William Sidney (1482?–1554) was an English courtier under Henry VIII and Edward VI. Life He was eldest son of Nicholas Sidney, by Anne, sister of Sir William Brandon. In 1511 he accompanied Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy into Spa ...

may have been assisted by Cromwell. In 1553, he was made a knight of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

. Dormer was returned as the second member for

Chipping Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Aylesbur ...

in the parliament of 1542, and served under his father's command in the war against France in 1544. He may well have been the "young Dormer" who for two years was captain of 100 men at a muster in Buckinghamshire. Two years later (in 1546) he accompanied his father to a reception at court for the French ambassador. In 1553 he was returned as a

knight of the shire Knight of the shire ( la, milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistributio ...

for

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

in the second parliament of Edward VI. It is not known what his position was in the succession crisis in 1553 when

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1504Loades 2008 – 22 August 1553) was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Ja ...

, attempted to place

Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 – 12 February 1554), later known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage) and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. Jane was ...

on the throne, but in May 1554 Queen

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

confirmed him in his post as falconer in recognition of his support for her against Northumberland. He may have been made Sheriff for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire due to his daughter, Jane Dormer's, friendship with Queen Mary, and his daughter's connection to the Queen may also have influenced his return to Mary's fifth parliament as

for Buckinghamshire in 1558. After the death of Queen Mary, Dormer's mother, Jane (née Newdigate), and Dormer's daughter, Jane, left England for the continent. Dormer, too, disliked Queen Elizabeth's Anglican compromise; however his Catholic family connections did not harm his political standing, either in national politics (in 1571 he again sat as a member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire in Elizabeth's third parliament), or in local affairs. Dormer died at the age of 72, and was buried in the family vault in

All Saints' Church, Wing All Saints' Church in Wing, Buckinghamshire is a Grade I listed parish church. Its masonry was largely built in the 8th to 11th centuries during the Anglo-Saxon period, making it one of the oldest surviving churches in England. Wing is located ...

. His second wife, Dorathy, had a monument built for him in the church, and founded an almshouse in the village of Wing in his memory.

Marriages and issue

Dormer married firstly Mary, eldest daughter of

and Anne Pakenham. They had two sons, Thomas Dormer and Robert Dormer, said to have died as infants, and two daughters, Anne Dormer, who married Sir Walter Hungerford, and

Jane Dormer Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria (6 January 1538 – 13 January 1612) was an English lady-in-waiting to Mary I who, after the Queen's death, married Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, 1st Duke of Feria and went to live in Spain, where she woul ...

, a lady in waiting to Queen Mary who married the Duke of Feria, Spanish ambassador to the

Court of Saint James The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – & ...

. After the death of his first wife Dormer married, about 1550, Dorothy Catesby (d.1613), the daughter of Isabel and Anthony Catesby (d.1554) of

Whiston, Northamptonshire Whiston is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Cogenhoe and Whiston, in the West Northamptonshire district, in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England. It is 4 miles due east of the county town of Northampton. In ...

. Dorothy Catesby was twenty years Dormer's junior. They had one son,

Robert Dormer, 1st Baron Dormer Sir Robert Dormer of Wing, 1st Baronet, 1st Baron Dormer of Wing r Wenge(26 January 1551 – 8 November 1616) was a 17th-century England, English Peerage, peer. Life Dormer was the third son (but first surviving) of Sir William Dormer and his ...

, who married Elizabeth Browne, the daughter of

Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, KB, PC (29 November 1528 – 19 October 1592) was an English peer during the Tudor period. Biography Anthony Browne was the eldest of the six sons of Sir Anthony Browne by his first wife, Alice Gage (d. ...

, and six daughters: Mary, who married Anthony Browne, the twin brother of

Mary Browne Mary Kendall Browne (June 3, 1891 – August 19, 1971) was an American professional tennis player and an amateur golfer. She was born in Ventura County, California. Biography According to A. Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Ma ...

, mother of

Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, (pronunciation uncertain: "Rezley", "Rizely" (archaic), (present-day) and have been suggested; 6 October 1573 – 10 November 1624) was the only son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of So ...

; Grissel; Katherine, who married John St John, 2nd Baron St John of Bletso (d.1596); Frances; Amphyllis; and Margaret (d.1637), who married Sir Henry Constable (d.1607). After Sir William Dormer's death his widow, Dorothy, married Sir William Pelham. File:Late C16th oil portrait of a member of the Browne and or Dormer family, (35 x 29 inches), c. 1592.jpg, Late 16th century c. 1592, oil portrait of a member of the Browne and or Dormer family

Notes

References

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Biography

Marriages and issue

Notes

References

Further reading