SEGAR, Sir William

English herald and painter. He is said to have been trained as a scrivener and may have been a son of Francis Nycholson, alias Seager, who became a freeman of the Stationers’ Company in 1557. William Segar entered the College of Arms under the patronage of Sir Thomas Heneage in 1585; he was appointed to the principal office, Garter King of Arms, in 1607 and was knighted in 1616. His career as a herald is well documented and some fine examples of his heraldic painting survive (especially London, British Library). In 1590 he published anonymously a heraldic treatise, the Booke of Honor and Armes, and in 1602 he brought out an expanded and illustrated version, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I and entitled Honor, Military and Civill.

Attempts to assess Segar’s style as a painter are complicated by the fact that Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia (1598) mentions two artists named Segar, William and Francis, as ‘brethren’. An inventory (1590) lists seven portraits by one or other ‘Seigar’ (or perhaps they were joint studio productions): Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (two), Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton (d 1593), Sir William Winter (d 1589), Sir William Drury (d 1579) and Sir Francis Drake (d 1596).

If the brothers had a joint studio, they probably gave it up early in the 17th century, and from 1605 Francis lived abroad as an employee of Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse. William Segar married twice and had a large family.