Sir Gilbert Dethick, FSA (c. 1510 – 3 October 1584) was a long-serving English officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He would eventually rise to the highest heraldic office in England and serve as Garter Principal King of Arms. Family origins Gilbert Dethick claimed descent from a family originally seated at Dethick Hall in Derbyshire. 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. Robert married Agatha, daughter of Matthias Leydendecker, a Dutch barber from Acon, near the Dutch border with Germany, who also became an armourer to Henry VIII. This Robert and Agatha had three sons: Dericke, Matthias and Gilbert. Gilbert later procured denization from Parliament for himself and his brothers. This alone casts doubt upon the later claim of a Derbyshire origin. All three brothers prospered in England. Personal details Gilbert Dethick first married Alice, daughter of Leonard Peterson, a Dutchman, but Alice died on 13 January 1572. Dethick then married Jane, daughter of Richard Duncomb of Moreton, Buckinghamshire and widow of William Naylor, one of the six clerks in chancery. In his first marriage, Dethick had three sons: Nicholas Dethick, who would become Windsor Herald of Arms in Ordinary; Sir William Dethick, who would become Garter Principal King of Arms like his father, and Henry Dethick, Chancellor of the Diocese of Carlisle. In his second marriage, Dethick had one son, Robert, and a daughter, Mary. For notes on William Flower, Norroy king-of-arms, and Robert Glover, Portcullis, see the introduction by F. R. Raines to the 1567 Visitation of Lancaster, pub. 1870 by the Chetham Society, v.81. Like Sir Gilbert, Flower and Glover came from merchant and yeoman families. In the Middle Ages would have been clerks in the household of a monarch or great nobleman, or in the church. These heralds were publicly honoured, if not well remunerated, for careful scholarship. This is another indication that the upper classes in Tudor and Stuart England were more accepting of "new men" than their continental counterparts. Heraldic career Dethick entered the College of Arms at the age of sixteen and was created Hampnes Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary on 16 June 1536 at Hampton Court. The office was named for Hampnes, now Hames, a castle and village near Calais. He was appointed Rouge Croix Pursuivant