of the Inner Temple in 1649, and was called to the bar in 1653. In 1660 he became judge of West Wales, in 1661 recorder of Derby, on 5 Feb. 1662 steward of the manor court of Peverel, later in 1662 justice of the Welsh marches, and was knighted at Whitehall 2 March 1669. Soon afterwards he was fined a hundred marks for declining ‘to come to the bench when called,’ but before the end of 1669 he was a bencher of his inn. In 1673 he was high sheriff of Derbyshire. In 1674 he failed to ‘read’ the autumn lecture, and obtained a royal letter excusing him ‘from any penalty’ for his dereliction of duty. On 25 Oct. 1674 he was elected Lent reader, but on his refusing to serve was fined 200l. and disbenched 22 Nov. following. He is said to have died before the end of 1704. In 1676 appeared his ‘Parson's Counsellor and Law of Tithes,’ a leading text-book on its subject for many years. A sixth edition appeared in 1703, and a seventh revised edition in 1820. Degge was also greatly interested in the history of Staffordshire, and wrote a long letter (‘Observations upon the Possessors of Monastery Lands in Staffordshire’), which was published in Erdeswicke's ‘Staffordshire,’ 1717. Degge married (1) Jane, daughter of Thomas Orrell, and (2) Alice, daughter of Anthony Oldfield. By his first wife (d. 1652) he had a son, Whitehall, and by his second wife, who died in 1696, a son, Simon.
[J. E. Martin's Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple, 1450–1883, privately printed 1883, p. 43; Erdeswicke's Staffordshire, ed. Harwood, liv–lx; Lysons's Magna Britannia, v. cxxv, 109; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
DE GREY. [See Grey.]
DE HEERE or D'HEERE, LUCAS (1534–1584), painter and poet, born at Ghent in 1534, was the son of Jan D'Heere, the leading statuary in Ghent, and Anna de Smytere, a famous illuminator. De Heere was placed at an early age in the studio of his father's friend, Frans Floris. His friend, Marcus van Vaernewyck, the historian, remarks on his precocious skill. De Heere afterwards travelled in France and England. In 1559 he and his father were employed in making decorations for the cathedral at Ghent, on the occasion of the chapter of the Golden Fleece held there by Philip II in July 1559. The picture of ‘The Queen of Sheba before Solomon,’ now in the chapel of St. Ivo in the cathedral at Ghent, probably formed part of these decorations. De Heere certainly enjoyed the patronage of Philip II, but subsequently he adopted the reformed religion, and became a devoted follower of the Prince of Orange. His chief patron was Adolph of Burgundy, seigneur of Waeken. De Heere seems to have lived in his patron's house, and painted portraits of him, his wife, and their fool. It was perhaps while engaged on these portraits that he met at Middelburg Eleonora, daughter of Pieter Carboniers, burgomaster of Vere, herself a person of literary talent, whose portrait he painted, and whom he eventually married. In Ghent he set up a school of painting, which promised to carry on the italianised traditions of Frans Floris and his pupils. Poetry was as much studied as painting, and De Heere's poems were much esteemed by his fellow-townsmen. He was one of the members of the famous Chamber of Rhetoric, called ‘Jesus with the Balsam Flower,’ and in 1565 he published a collection of his poems, entitled ‘De Hof en Boomgaerd der Poesien.’ In that year he also published a translation of the Psalms of David after Clement Marot, and in 1566 wrote an introductory poem to the Psalms, published by the famous preacher, Peter Dathenus. In August 1566 the iconoclastic outbreak took place, and most of the works of De Heere's father and probably his own perished either then or at the subsequent outbreak in 1578. In 1568 De Heere with others was banished, his school was broken up, and he took refuge with his wife in England. He was one of the elders of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, in 1571, and was a witness to a baptism in the same church on 31 May 1576. The pacification of Ghent permitted De Heere to return to Ghent, but he does not seem to have done so until April 1577. In that year he subscribed at Ghent the protestant oath, and with his wife attended the public communion at Middelburg. In December 1577 he designed the pageants attending the entry of the Prince of Orange into Ghent, and subsequently published a description of them with verses laudatory of the prince. He now became a public official, and is described as ‘auditeur van de rekencamere.’ He again took a prominent part in the fêtes on the announcement in November 1581 of the betrothal of Queen Elizabeth to the Duc d'Alençon, and in 1582 on the entry of the last named prince into Ghent. When the Duke of Parma attacked Ghent, De Heere again left his native city. He died 29 Aug. 1584, according to some accounts in Paris. De Heere, besides being a voluminous writer, was a student of art, and possessed a collection of antiquities and works of art. He commenced a history in verse of the Flemish school of painting. Few of his pictures remain in his native country. At Copenhagen there is an allegorical picture of ‘The Wise and Foolish Virgins,’ dated 1570, by him, and a picture at
