Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby

Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby in a portrait of the 1630s by Anthony van Dyck.

Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby (28 June 1573 – 20 January 1643/4) was an English soldier. Outlawed after a killing in 1594, he regained favour after successful military service in Ireland and was raised to the Peerage of England in 1603. He became a Knight of the Garter in 1633.

Life He was the second son of John Danvers, of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, by his wife Elizabeth Nevill, the youngest daughter and coheiress of John Nevill, 4th Baron Latymer. He was born at Dauntsey on 28 June 1573, and at an early age became a page to Sir Philip Sidney, whom he accompanied to the Low Countries, and was probably present at the battle of Zutphen in 1586. After his master's death, he served as a volunteer under Maurice, Count of Nassau, who appointed him at the age of eighteen to the command of a company of infantry. Danvers took part in the siege of Rouen in 1591, and was there knighted for his services in the field by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in command of the expedition. On 15 June 1613 he obtained the grant in reversion of the office of keeper of St. James's Palace, and on 23 March 1621, he was made governor of the isle of Guernsey for life.

The Danby gateway to the University of Oxford Botanic Garden built in 1633.

On 12 March 1622 Danvers conveyed to the university of Oxford five acres of land, opposite Magdalen College, which had formerly served as a Jewish cemetery, for the encouragement of the study of physic and botany. He had the ground raised and enclosed within a high wall. The gateway of the Oxford Botanic Garden, designed by Nicholas Stone, a master mason who frequently worked with Inigo Jones, still bears the following inscription, 'Gloriae Dei Opt. Max. Honori Caroli Regis, in usum Acad. et Reipub. Henricus comes Danby DD. MDCXXXII.' By his will, he left the rectory of Kirkdale in Yorkshire towards the maintenance of the gardens.