Sir William Dugdale

Sir William Dugdale (born Sept. 12, 1605, Shustoke, Warwickshire, Eng.—died Feb. 10, 1686, Blythe Hall, Warwickshire) was an English antiquary who was preeminent among the medievalist scholars in his time. An authority on genealogy and charters, he displayed accurate scholarship and insight unusual for his period.

Dugdale married early and settled as a small landowner at Blythe Hall, Warwickshire. Gradually he became the centre of a scholarly circle, and, following an introduction to the antiquary Sir Henry Spelman in London, he compiled, with the help of Roger Dodsworth, Monasticon Anglicanum, 3 vol. (1655–73), a collection of records relating to medieval English religious houses. Among his other important works are the Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), which became a model for large-scale county histories, and The Baronage of England (1675–76). He was knighted in 1667.