DUGDALE, Sir William (1605-1686), an eminent English antiquary, the only son of John Dugdale, who belonged to an old Lancashire family, but had sold his property in that county and bought the estate of Shustoke, near Coleshill, in Warwickshire, was born on the 12 th September 1605. He received the early part of his education from Thomas Sibley, a curate near Shustoke, and attended from his tenth to his fifteenth year the Free School at Coventry, whence returning to his father, he read with him for some time law and history. In compliance with his father’s wish, who was old and infirm, and desired to see him married before he died, he was married at the early age of seventeen to the daughter of a gentleman in the county of Stafford. He lived in his wife’s father’s house until the death of his own father in 1624, and soon thereafter went to reside at Fillongley, near Shustoke, an estate formerly purchased for him by his father. In 1625 he purchased the manor of Blyth, in the parish of Shustoke, and, preferring it as a place of residence, removed thither in 1626. His inclination to the study of antiquities manifested itself at an early age, and received its first encouragement from Samuel Roper, a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn. After his settlement at Blyth Hall he made the acquaintance of some gentlemen interested in antiquities, who enabled him to obtain a sight of the old “deeds and evidences” of the county families of Warwickshire, and “divers antient writings of consequence,” with the view of his writing a history of that county. In 1635 he accompanied Sir Simon Archer to London, and was by him introduced to Sir Henry Spelman, which led to his acquaintance with Thomas, earl of Arundell, then earl marshal of England, by whom he was, in 1638, created a ...