George Nayler

Sir George Nayler, KH (bapt. 29 June 1764, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire – 28 October 1831, Hanover Square, Mayfair) was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London.

Early life

George Nayler was born on June 29, 1764 in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. He was the fifth son of George Nayler, surgeon, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, and his wife Sarah, daughter of John Fark of Clitheroe, Lancashire.

Heraldic career

Originally a miniature painter, Nayler began his heraldic career in 1792 (the year he married Charlotte Williams, the illegitimate daughter of Sir John Guise, 1st Baronet). That year, he acquired a loan of £1300 to purchase the resignation of John Suffield Brown as Genealogist of the Order of the Bath and Blanc Coursier Herald and Nayler was appointed on 15 June 1792. Upon the resignation of Lancaster Herald in 1793, Nayler acquired a post in the College of Arms as Bluemantle Pursuivant for £60 and on the accidental deaths of Somerset and York Heralds at Haymarket in 1794, he was promoted to York Herald that year.

In 1813, Nayler was knighted by The Prince Regent at Carlton House, possibly as a consolation for not having been appointed Garter Principal King of Arms' deputy to invest Alexander I of Russia with the Order of the Garter. In 1816 and 1818 respectively, Nayler was appointed King of Arms of the newly created orders of the Royal Guelphic Order (of which he was made a knight in 1816) and the Order of St Michael and St George.

In 1820, he was promoted as Clarenceux King of Arms and officiated in place of the aged Garter, Isaac Heard at the coronation of George IV in 1821. A year later, Nayler succeeded Heard as Garter and went on foreign missions to award the Garter to Frederick VI of Denmark in 1822, John VI of Portugal (who created Nayler a Knight Commander of the Order of the Tower and Sword) in 1823, Charles X of France in 1825 and Nicholas I of Russia in 1827.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1826.

Nayler's presence at the coronation of William IV in 1831 was to be one of his last official functions before his death almost two months later. He was buried in his family vault at the church of St John the Baptist in Gloucester.

References

• Woodcock, Thomas. "Nayler, Sir George (bap. 1764, d. 1831), herald". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 15 September 2007.