How did dowsing get its name?

Henry the VIII, forever short on money to finance his many military and romantic adventures, hired a man named George Dowsing as a hill digger to locate treasure buried by England’s pre-Christian kings.

Dowsing went about his work with rods that bobbed whenever he walked over precious metals. History does not record his successes, but he must have struck paydirt often enough for his name to be forever associated with finding things underground using sticks, rods, or plumb bobs.

From Spring 1999 American Dowser Quarterly Digest