Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dugard, William
DUGARD, WILLIAM (1606–1662), schoolmaster, son of the Rev. Henry Dugard, was born at the Hodges, Bromsgrove Lickey, Worcestershire, on 9 Jan. 1605–6. He was educated at the Royal School, by Worcester Cathedral; became a pensioner at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, under his uncle, Richard Dugard, B.D.; and took degrees of B.A. in 1626, and M.A. in 1630. In 1626 he was usher of Oundle school, and in 1630 master of Stamford school. In 1635 he sued the corporate authorities for misappropriation of school lands and other abuses. Two years afterwards he became master of Colchester grammar school. He increased the number of scholars from nine to sixty-nine, and repaired the school at his own expense, but gave offence to the townsmen, and was compelled to resign in January 1642–3. In May 1644 he was chosen head-master of Merchant Taylors' School in London. In 1648 the court of aldermen elected him examiner of their schools in the country. He was the first to set up a folio register of his school, with full particulars of the scholars admitted. It is still preserved in the Sion College library. This record has two loyal Greek verses on the death of Charles I., and two other Greek verses on the burial of Cromwell's mother. He printed at his private press Salmasius's ‘Defensio regia pro Carolo primo’ in 1649–50. The council of state committed him to Newgate, ordered the destruction of his presses and implements, and directed the Merchant Taylors' Company to dismiss him from their school. His wife and family were turned out of doors, and his printing effects, worth 1,000l., seized. After a month's imprisonment, however, his release was effected by his friend Milton. It is said by Dr. Gill , that Milton found Dugard printing an edition of the ‘Eikōn Basilikē’ about the time of his arrest, and compelled the insertion of the prayer from Sidney's ‘Arcadia,’ which he afterwards ridiculed in the ‘Eikonoklastes.’ Milton's answer to Salmasius was printed at Dugard's press.
On Dugard's release from Newgate he opened a private school on St. Peter's Hill. Bradshaw, however, a few months afterwards, ordered the Merchant Taylors' Company to replace him for his special services to the public as schoolmaster, and as printer to the state, and after a third peremptory letter Dugard was reinstated 25 Sept. 1650. In 1651–2 some of his books were publicly burnt by order of the House of Commons, such as ‘The Racovian Catechism.’ Yet in the same year he printed a French translation of Milton's ‘Eikonoklastes,’ and calls himself ‘Guill. Dugard, imprimeur du conseil d'état.’ The governors of the school, on the burning of his works, desired him to relinquish his press-work, but his imprint appears year by year until his death. In June 1661, after public warning by the school authorities of various breaches of order, chiefly in taking an excessive number of scholars (275), he was dismissed. A month after he opened a private school in White's Alley, Coleman Street, and soon had 193 pupils under his care. He died 3 Dec. 1662. From his will, made a month before, he seems to have survived his second wife, and left only a daughter, Lydia, not of age. His first wife, Elizabeth, died at Colchester in 1641. Two sons, Richard (b. 25 June 1634) and Thomas (b. 29 Nov. 1635), entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1644, the former being elected to St. John's College 1650. He lived at Newington Butts in 1660, when he concealed in his house James Harrington, author of ‘Oceana,’ and gave a bond for him of 5,000l. Harrington had previously done him like service.
His works are: 1. ‘Rudimenta Græcæ Linguæ, for the use of Merchant Taylors' School,’ before 1656. 2. ‘The English Rudiments of the Latin Tongue,’ London, 1656, 12mo. 3. ‘Vestibulum Linguæ Latinæ,’ London, 1656. 4. ‘Lexicon Græci Testamenti Alphabeticum,’ London, 1660, 8vo, pp. 752. The manuscript of a new edition by the younger Bowyer, who took great pains with it, was prepared in 1774, but not published. 5. ‘Rhetorices Compendium, London, 8vo. 6. ‘Egcheiridion … sive manuale Græcæ Linguæ—Caspario Seidelio,’ 3rd edition, London, 1665. 7. ‘Rhetorices Elementa quæstionibus et responsionibus explicata,’ &c., several editions, the 7th, London, 1673, 8vo.
[Dugard's Works; Stow's Survey, i. 169, 170, 203; Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), ii. 178; Kennett's Register, p. 447; Milton's Works; Journals of the House of Commons, 1652; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 525, iii. 164, 290; Reading's Sion College Library, p. 41; Wilson's Merchant Taylors' School, pp. 159, 268–71, 276, 288, 289, 304–14, 318, 323–8; Morant's Essex, i. 177.]