Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/55

 He does not appear to have taken much part in the debates in the House of Lords, and but few of his speeches are reported. He was a member of the Dilettanti Society, a governor of the Charterhouse, and acted as one of the lords justices in 1752, during the king's absence from England. He was the patron of William Mason, to whom he gave the valuable rectory of Aston, where the poet resided for many years. Mason's dedicatory sonnet, beginning with ‘D'Arcy, to thee, whate'er of happier vein,’ is dated 12 May 1763, and appeared in his volume of ‘Poems’ which was published in 1764. The poet subsequently quarrelled with his patron, and avoided his presence, refusing even to visit Walpole at Strawberry Hill lest he should meet him by accident. The earl's portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in February 1755, and an engraving of the picture (formerly belonging to Mason, and now in the possession of Lady Alleyne of Chevin House, Belper), by R. Cooper, is given in the first volume of ‘The Works of William Mason’ (1811). The portrait painted by Knapton for the Dilettanti Society was exhibited at the third Exhibition of National Portraits in 1868 (Catalogue, No. 937).

[Collins's Peerage of England (1768), iv. 35–7; Burke's Extinct Peerage (1883), p. 159; Walpole's Letters (Cunningham's edition), passim; Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George II (1847), passim; Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George III (1845), i. 42–3; Coxe's Memoirs of the Pelham Administration (1829), ii. 130–1, 189–90, 386–7; Memoirs from 1754 to 1758, by James Earl Waldegrave (1821), pp. 120–3; Harris's Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke (1847), iii. 242; Alumni Westmonasterienses (1852), pp. 544–6, 575; Whitaker's History of Richmondshire (1823), ii. 44, 47; Leslie and Taylor's Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1865), i. 109–10, 130, 144, 152; Haydn's Book of Dignities (1851), pp. 93, 130, 172; Doyle's Official Baronage (1886), ii. 205–6; London Gazettes, 1740, No. 7966, 1751, No. 9068, 1771, No. 11135; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 188, 254.] 

DARCY, THOMAS, (1467–1537), statesman and rebel leader, was the son of Sir William Darcy by his wife Euphemia, daughter of Sir John Langton. The family had held lands in Lincolnshire from the days of the Domesday survey, wherein it appears that one Norman de Areci held thirty lordships in that county by the Conqueror's gift. A little later the name became d'Arci, and finally Darcy. In the days of Edward III they acquired by marriage other possessions in various counties, among which was the family seat of Templehurst in Yorkshire. Sir William Darcy died on 30 May 1488, leaving his son and heir Thomas over twenty-one years of age (Inquis. p. m. 3 Hen. VII, No. 19). In 1492 he was bound by indenture to serve Henry VII beyond sea for a whole year with one thousand men, ‘himself having his custrel and page, 16 archers, and 4 bills, and 6 H.’ (apparently halberds) on foot (, xii. 481, 1st ed.). In the latter part of the same year he attended the king at the reception of the French embassy sent to treat for peace. In 1496 he was indicted at quarter sessions in the West Riding for giving to various persons ‘a token or livery called the Buck's Head’ (‘Baga de secretis,’ see Third Report of Dep. Keeper of Public Records, App. ii. p. 219). But next year he marched with Surrey to raise the siege of Norham, and pursued King James on his retreat into Scotland (, 763, Leyden ed., 1651). He was a knight for the king's body, and is so designated in the patent by which, on 8 June 1498, he was made constable and doorward of Bamborough Castle in Northumberland (Patent, 13 Hen. VII, m. 18). On 16 Dec. of the same year he, being then captain of Berwick, was appointed deputy to Henry, duke of York, warden of the east and middle marches (Scotch Roll, 14 Hen. VII, m. 16). While thus engaged on the borders he had a good deal of correspondence with Henry's able minister Fox, bishop of Durham, whose bishopric lay continually open to invasion. In the same year, 1498, he was one of three commissioners appointed to assess fines on those who had taken part in the revolt on behalf of Perkin Warbeck in the previous year in Devonshire and Cornwall (, 1st ed., xii. 697). He was also one of three appointed for a like purpose (but apparently two years later) for the counties of Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, and he had a special commission to himself to execute the offices of constable and marshal of England on those who refused to compound (Patent, 15 Hen. VII, p. 2, m. 10). On 6 July 1499 he was appointed one of five ambassadors to settle disputes with Scotland (, xii. 721). Besides being captain of Berwick, he was on 10 Sept. 1501 appointed treasurer and chamberlain of that town, and customer of the port there (Scotch Roll, 17 Hen. VII, m. 26). In the latter part of the year 1502 he and Henry Babington were despatched into Scotland to receive the oath of James IV to a treaty of peace, which they accordingly did at Glasgow on 10 Dec. (, xiii. 33, 43).

Shortly before this, in the fifteenth year of Henry VII, he was appointed by the crown constable and steward of Sheriffhutton (Pa-