fines were to be imposed on absentee fellows, was not ultra vires, is mentioned in the 'Calendar of State Papers,' Dom. 1625-6, p. 525. On, or soon after, his translation from the see of Bath and Wells to that of London (1628), Laud appointed Duck chancellor of the diocese of London, to which the chancellorship of the diocese of Bath and Wells was added in 1635. Duck pleaded on behalf of Laud an ecclesiastical case tried before the king's council at Whitehall on appeal from the dean of arches in 1633. By Laud's directions the altar in St. Gregory's Church, London, had been placed in the chancel, whence it had been removed by order of Sir Henry Martin, dean of arches. Charles himself gave judgment, deciding that when not in use the altar should remain in the chancel, but that its position on occasion of the celebration of the eucharist should be left to the discretion of the minister and churchwardens. On 17 Dec. 1633 Duck was placed on the ecclesiastical commission, and in 1634 he was appointed visitor of the hospitals, poorhouses, and schools in the diocese of Canterbury (ib. 1631-3, pp. 108, 255; 1633-4, pp. 327, 530; 1635, p. 233; 1636-7, p. 429; 1641-3, p. 532). A multitude of minutes in the 'Calendar of State Papers' from this date until 1643 show the volume and variety of the business transacted by him in his character of ecclesiastical commissioner. In the first parliament of 1640 he again represented Minehead. In 1645 he was appointed master in chancery (Hardy, Catalogue of Lord Chancellors, &c.) In September 1648 Charles, then a prisoner in the Isle of Wight, requested that the parliament would permit Duck to attend him to assist him in the conduct of the negotiations then pending. It is not clear whether the request was granted or not. Duck died suddenly in Chelsea Church on 16 Dec. 1648, and was buried at Chiswick in May 1649. He held by sublease the prebendal manor of Chiswick, which narrowly escaped pillage by the parliamentary troops in 1642. His property was subsequently sequestrated (Whitelocke, Mem. 234, 235; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641-3, p. 372; Smyth, Obituary, Camden Soc., 27; Lysons, Environs, ii. 191, 218). Duck married Margaret, daughter of Henry Southworth, by whom he had nine children. Two daughters only survived him. His wife died on 15 Aug. 1646, and was buried in Chiswick Church. Duck is the author of two works of some merit: 1. 'Vita Henrici Chichele archiepiscopi Cantuariensis sub regibus Henrico V et VI,' Oxford, 1617, 4to, reprinted, ed. William Bates, in 'Vitæ Selectorum aliquot Virorum,' London, 1681, 4to, translated by an anonymous hand, London, 1699, 8vo. 2. 'De Usu et Authoritate Juris Civilis Romanorum,' London, 1653 (in which he was much assisted by Gerard Langbaine), translated by J. Beaver in 1724, and bound in the same volume with the translation of Ferrières's 'History of the Roman Law,' London, 8vo.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iii. 257; Wood's Fasti Oxon. i. 296, 321, 348; Lists of Members of Parliament (Official Return of); Fuller's Worthies (Devon); Prince's Worthies of Devon.]
DUCK, Sir JOHN (d. 1691), mayor of Durham, was apprenticed early in life to a butcher at Durham, though from an entry in the guild registers it appears that in 1657 some opposition was raised to his following the trade. The foundation of his subsequent fortunes is said to have been laid by the following incident. 'As he was straying in melancholy idleness by the water side, a raven appeared hovering in the air, and from chance or fright dropped from his bill a gold Jacobus at the foot of the happy butcher boy.' This adventure was depicted on a panel in the house which he afterwards built for himself in Durham, where he became exceedingly prosperous, and in 1680 served the office of mayor. Taking an active part in politics during the last years of the Stuarts, he attracted the attention of the government, and in 1686 his useful loyalty was rewarded by a patent of baronetcy. In this he is described as 'of Haswell on the Hill,' a manor which he had purchased with his accumulated wealth in the year of his mayoralty. He built and endowed a hospital at Lumley, but as he had no issue his title became extinct at his death, 26 Aug. 1691.
[Surtees' Hist. of Durham, i. 53, 54, &c.; Le Neve's Baronets; Burke's Extinct Baronetage.]
DUCK, NICHOLAS (1570–1628), lawyer, eldest son of Richard Duck by Joanna, his wife, was born at Heavitree, Devonshire, in 1570, and entered Exeter College, Oxford, on 12 July 1584. He left the university without a degree, and entered Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar, and of which he was one of the governors from 1615 until his death. He was also reader at Lincoln's Inn in Lent 1618, and the same year was elected recorder of Exeter. He is recorded to have given 5l. to the fund for building Lincoln's Inn Chapel in 1617 (Dugdale, Orig. 235, 255, 264-5). He died on 28 Aug. 1628, and was buried in Exeter Cathedral. He was brother of Sir Arthur Duck [q. v.]
[Prince's Worthies of Devon; Lansd. MS. 985, f. 77.]
