Clement Heigham

Background and early career

Clement Heigham was the son and heir of Clement Heigham of Lavenham, Suffolk, the fourth son of Thomas Heigham of Heigham (died 1492). His mother was Matilda (Maud), daughter of Lawrence Cooke of Lavenham. His exact birth date is not known, but (if we follow Metcalfe's edition) he was the first of five sons, also Thomas, John, William and Edmond. His father died on 29 August 1500, and was buried under a marble slab in the Braunches chapel on the north side of the chancel of Lavenham church, with a brass figure in full armour, a brief Latin inscription, and above it a single shield for Heigham displaying Sable a fess componée or and azure, between 3 horses' heads erased argent. (The brasses are long since lost.)

It is suggested that Clement may have received early education from the monks of Bury St Edmunds. He was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in July 1517, but, being appointed an officer for the Inn's celebration of Christmas in 1519, failed to turn up, and was fined. He was called to the bar in 1525. In around 1520 he married Anne Monnynge, of a mid-Suffolk family, and over the next years she had five daughters, and one son (who died in infancy). In 1521 Clement Heigham, Roger Reve (brother of John Reve, Abbot of Bury St Edmunds 1513–1539) and Thomas Munning were among the feoffees for 2nd Duke of Norfolk and others in lands at Stow Bardolph and Wimbotsham, Norfolk.

By 1528, however, his first wife was dead, and he remarried to the widow Anne Bures, daughter of George Waldegrave of Smallbridge, Suffolk and Anne Drury, with whom he had a further three sons and two daughters. Anne had previously been the wife of Sir Henry Bures (died 1528), of Acton Hall, Suffolk, and by him had four daughters, Joan, Bridget, Anne and another, who were small children at the time of the second marriage. They were therefore the step-sisters of Heigham's elder daughters, and of similar ages to them, and were to become the half-sisters of the Heigham children by the second marriage. Estimates of the birthdate of John Higham, his first son by Anne, range between c. 1530 and c. 1540.

His attainments as a lawyer, and perhaps the example of the Abbot's bailiff Thomas Heigham during the 1470s, had by 1528 recommended Clement Heigham to the office of Bailiff to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. In 1529 he first received commission as justice of the peace for Suffolk, and remained in the Suffolk magistracy for the rest of his life. He became Pensioner at Lincoln's Inn in 1531 and was called to the Bench in 1534. On the east side of the county of Suffolk, farm of the site of the manor of Semer was leased to him in 1532 under the Convent seal for 30 years. On the west side he developed tenures around the Abbey's manor and park of Chevington, not far from Gazeley and the hamlet of Heigham from which his family took its name. In his chambers at Lincoln's Inn Heigham was presented as Autumn Reader in 1537/38 (when he was also appointed Marshall, but fined £7 for not acting), and Keeper of the Black Book in 1538/39. Through this time the monastic closures occurred, and Bury Abbey was dissolved in 1539.

Dissolution and Edwardian period

Following the death in 1539 of Roger Reve, the Court of Augmentations instructed Clement Heigham of Chevington to pay £220 to Abbot John Reve (Roger's executor), and in March 1540, shortly before his death, John Reve made his own testament appointing Heigham his executor and disposing of the sum in many small legacies, not forgetting his sister Elizabeth Munning and her daughter. Reve gave to Heigham his valuable hangings in his great chamber at Horningsheath, and to Anne Heigham his best ring set with turkey stones. The manor and park of Chevington were among those granted to Sir Thomas Kytson in March 1540.

Serving as Treasurer of Lincoln's Inn in 1540–41, in December 1540 Heigham completed the purchase of the manor of Barrow, near Chevington, from Sir Thomas Wentworth (died 1551) of Nettlestead, by deed of Sir William Waldegrave of Smallbridge Hall (Anne Heigham's brother), Sir William Drury of Hawstead (her uncle) and Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke Hall (her stepfather). Here he built his residence of Barrow Hall, which remained in the family of his descendants for more than two centuries. An illustration of the Hall, copied in 1779 from a 1597 original, survives. John Gage wrote of it, "Barrow Hall... stood on the south side of the church, and was a large brick building, moated. In the summer of 1775, the ground plan of the building was traceable. It was evident that the front had been broken by a central gatehouse, and several bay windows." The rectory of Barrow was then newly occupied as the benefice of a notable academic in the University of Cambridge, Dr Thomas Bacon, presented by the King in 1539. Heigham purchased the manor of Semer from the King for £426 in 1543.

Queen Katheryn's letter from Hampton Court of 25 July 1544 to the King in Calais, advising His Majesty that Clement Higham had been appointed by the Council and the High Treasurer of the Wars for the wafting of £40,000 unto His Majesty on the following Monday, indicates the high level of trust now reposed in him. He was again appointed Autumn Reader at Lincoln's Inn at All Souls 1545, but he was reported to be "sykke and disseased", and Giles Townsend had to read for him. The Solicitor-General (Edward Griffith) called an immediate council which appointed Heigham Lent Reader next coming if willing, or to pay a fine of 20 nobles, and wrote at once for his decision. He read at Lent 1547/48. Following the death of King Henry and the accession of Edward VI in 1547, the Autumn vacation of 1548 was not kept owing to a death from plague in the Inn, but at the Council at All Saints' Day 1548 Clement Heigham first sat as a Governor of Lincoln's Inn, and regularly thereafter through the reigns of Edward and of Mary, where he was often in company with Edward Griffith.

Marian advancement

In the succession crisis of the following summer, on 8 July 1553 Queen Mary wrote to Sir George Somerset, Sir William Drury, Sir William Waldegrave and Clement Heigham, informing them of the death of King Edward and commanding them to repair to her at Kenninghall in Norfolk. They, together with the Earl of Bath, Sir John Sulyard, Sir Henry Bedingfield, Henry Jerningham and others were with her on 12 July, in preparation for her journey to London: their swift loyalty to her was afterwards remembered. Bedingfield and Drury had sat in March for the county of Suffolk; but it was in the parliament of October 1553 that Heigham sat first, initially for Rye, and was placed in charge of some important legislation, including an Act to avoid unlawful risings. Wyatt's rebellion intervened in February 1554. In April 1554 Heigham was returned to parliament for Ipswich, Suffolk, and had responsibility for the bill concerning Ordinances for Cathedral churches in late April. This parliament was dissolved in May 1554, and soon afterwards he was admitted to the Privy Council of England.

Speaker of the House of Commons

It was then in November 1554, following solemnization of the marriage of Philip and Mary, that, being returned for West Looe (Cornwall), Heigham was elected Speaker of the House of Commons. The Bishop of Winchester, Lord Chancellor, opened the proceedings by declaring that the parliament was called for the confirmation of true (i.e. Catholic) religion. Then Heigham, being chosen Speaker, "in an excellent oration, comparing the body politic to the body natural, introduced the three usual petitions, for freedom of speech, etc., and was accepted." He presided over very weighty affairs. Cardinal Pole, his attainder reversed, spoke before both houses. The schemes of Stephen Gardiner were accomplished: the Acts against the Pope were repealed, and those against Heresy revived. Almost forty members of the Commons rose and left the house when they saw that the majority were minded to capitulate: Heigham's colleague Edward Griffith, since May 1552 Attorney-General, was ordered to indict them.

The parliament was dissolved on 16 January 1555, and shortly afterwards, 27 January, Heigham was knighted by King Philip in his chamber, together with the Lord Mayor of 1554-1555 John Lyon, Robert Broke (Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas), Edward Saunders, John Whiddon and William Staunford, Justices. In a legal notice issued in July 1555, in which he legitimizes the heir of a priest of Mildenhall who had married in the time of King Edward, it is expressed that Philip and Mary "per Clementum Heigham militem Senescallum suum concesserunt...", Senescallus or steward presumably referring to his position in the Privy Council. At Lincoln's Inn, at the All Saints' Day Council of 1554, Mr. Hygham's name appeared second in precedence among the six Governors, between Edward Griffith, Attorney-General of the King and Queen, and William Cordell, Solicitor-General: one year later, Clement Hygham, Knight, headed the list. Sir William Waldegrave died during that year, leaving £20 among the children of his sister Anne wife of Clement Higham.

Heretics

According to Heigham's own epitaph,"In punishment unto the pore which ded their cryme lamentHe wold with pyty mercyfull from rigour soone relent:But unto them which wilfully contynude in offence,A terro[r] unto them he was in Justice true defence." Advancement to the summit of his career depended, for Heigham, upon the favour of Mary and her Chancellor, which came with expectations. Inevitably he was an instrument of their persecutions, and as a justice and magistrate he must frequently have given the first hearings to cases of religious delinquency. His reputation for severity towards common people as heretics seems borne out by a few stories in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments.

Hooper and Mountain

He was plunged directly into the full political force of Gardiner's intentions within hours of receiving his knighthood. On 28 and 29 January 1554/55 Heigham was in St Mary Overie where Stephen Gardiner with Edmund Bonner presided over a solemn company of the bishops, many lords, knights and others, to witness the public inquisition and excommunication of John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester. Hooper was condemned, sentenced and handed over to the Sheriffs of London for burning. Many, including Sir Clement Heigham and Sir Richard Dobbs, were required to witness the notarial certificate of the proceedings. John Rogers (Prebendary of St Paul's), Dr. Rowland Taylor and Laurence Saunders (brother of Sir Edward) were condemned in the same session: Hooper was burned on 9 February 1554/55. On 5 March 1555, Queen Mary rewarded Heigham for his loyalty to her at Framlingham, and for his services as Speaker, by the grant in chief of the reversion of the manor and rectory of Nedging, Suffolk, with its lands in Semer, Bildeston, Whatfield and Chelsworth.

Heigham was also on the Cambridge Castle Bench with Sir Robert Broke, Edward Griffith and others when Thomas Mountain, the troubled minister of Whittington College was brought into the August sessions of 1555, after a long imprisonment, and was found to have no accusers. The County Sheriff for November 1554 to 1555, Sir Oliver Leader, spoke up for Mountain, and then said he had forgotten to bring with him the writ against the man. Griffith, in the meantime, was telling Mountain that he was a traitor and a heretic, and likely to be hanged. However without a writ or an accuser Broke and his fellow-justices were obliged in all equity to release Mountain on bail, which was immediately put up by his acquaintances, and he was later able to make an escape.

Elizabethan years

Heigham received a new patent as Chief Baron of the Exchequer upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth, but he resigned it on 22 January 1559, and so served only 10 months in the office in all, making way for Sir Edward Saunders to succeed him. The reversal of Mary's religious policy and the abhorrence of her persecutions was such that he withdrew from public office, and retired to Barrow Hall. He last appeared as Governor at the All Saints' Day 1557 Council of Lincoln's Inn, when his son-in-law Robert Kempe was Keeper of the Black Book. In November 1559 he was granted the arrears of an annuity relating to the wardship of his daughter Elizabeth Kempe's first marriage, to Henry Eden. His son and heir John Heigham, who had matriculated from Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1555, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 7 May 1558. Sir Clement however retained his place in the Suffolk magistracy, and is said, in his epitaph, to have been beloved by his neighbours for his effectiveness in settling their disputes peaceably. On 22 June 1559, following the death of Dr Thomas Bacon (Master of Gonville Hall, Cambridge), incumbent, he presented John Crosyer, Cambridge B.A. (1535–1536), M.A. (1538), to the Rectory of Barrow.

Heigham retained until his death the office of Chief Bailiff to the town of Bury St Edmunds, as he had held it since the time of Sir Robert Drury. He drew support from his long connection with Sir Nicholas Bacon, appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and Lord Privy Seal to Elizabeth in 1558, who in the 1560s was building his residences at Old Gorhambury, Hertfordshire and Redgrave Hall, Suffolk. During the 1540s Heigham was connected with Bacon in the manors of Ingham, Ampton and Culford. In 1562 Bacon was recruited by Heigham, Ambrose Jermyn, John Holt and others, to assist in their attempts to obtain a charter for Bury St Edmunds. He wrote supportively, but expressing doubt as to the prospects of success.

John Heigham, the heir, married in 1562. It was in 1564 that Sir Nicholas Bacon's son and heir, Nicholas Bacon the younger, married Anne Butts, Dame Anne Heigham's granddaughter. Sir Thomas Kytson the younger (1540–1603), of Hengrave Hall, described to the Duke of Norfolk how he accompanied Sir Clement Heigham and other gentlemen of the county to meet the Lord Keeper between Bury and Newmarket, in his progress to Redgrave Hall. In August 1566 Sir Thomas Gresham wrote from Ringshall to William Cecil telling how he had met the Lord Keeper at Sir Clement Heigham's house, where "his Lordshipe sealed the Quene's Maiestie's bonds" before proceeding to St Albans. A letter of 1569 survives in which the Lord Keeper instructs his son to send a brace of bucks from Redgrave to Sir Clement Heigham. When Heigham died in 1571, the office of Bailiff of Bury St Edmunds was granted to Nicholas Bacon "as fully as it was formerly held by Robert Drury, Kt., or Clement Heigham, Kt."

Marriage and children

Sir Clement married twice.

His first wife, Anne, is in some sources said to have been Anne Moonines daughter of John de Moonines of Semer Hall, near Bildeston, Suffolk, but in others to have been the daughter of Thomas Monnynge or Munninge of Bury St Edmunds. By her Sir Clement had one son, who died without issue, and five daughters:

Vincent Heigham (died in infancy).

Elizabeth Heigham, living 1570, married (1) Henry Eden of St Edmundsbury, and (2) Robert Kempe of Finchingfield, Essex.

Margaret Heigham, living 1570, married Humphrey Moseley, of Tunstall, Staffordshire; died 1606 aged 78, buried at Wolverhampton.

Anne Heigham, living 1570, married Thomas Turner of Wratting, Suffolk.

Frances Heigham, living 1570, married ----- Warren.

Lucy Heigham, living 1570, married (1) John Bokenham, of Snetterton, Norfolk, and (2) Francis Stonar, of Stapleford, Essex.

His second wife, whom he married after 1528, was Anne Waldegrave (1506–1590), widow of Sir Henry Bures of Acton, Suffolk, and daughter of Sir George Waldegrave (1483–1528) of Smallbridge in the parish of Bures St. Mary, Suffolk and his wife Anne Drury (d. 1572). (Anne Drury was a daughter of Sir Robert Drury, Lord of the manors of Thurston and Hawstead, both in Suffolk (1455–1536)). (See also the Waldegrave family.) By Anne Waldegrave (who died in 1589 aged 84, and whose ledger stone survives in All Saints Church, Thornage, Norfolk) he had several children, including:

Sir John Heigham, eldest son and heir, an M.P. for Ipswich. He married (1), 1562, Anne, daughter of Edmund Wright (died 1583), of Sutton Hall, Bradfield Combust, Suffolk, and (2), Anne, daughter of William Poley of Boxted, Suffolk.

Monument

Sir Clement is buried in the Church of All Saints at Barrow, Suffolk. Against the south wall of the chancel is a tomb-chest surmounted by a low canopy with a flat-arched roof, ornamented within with quatrefoils and Tudor flowers. Externally the canopy has a horizontal frontage carved with quatrefoils (three enclosing shields, two enclosing double roses) between coursed mouldings, crowned above with a frieze of lozenge-formed crinkled foliage between the slender octagonal columnar quoins which rise at the corners as turrets. The front of the tomb-chest has three lozenges enclosing quatrefoil tracery with a heraldic shield at the centre of each.

Beneath the canopy, a brass memorial of composite construction is set into the upright wall at the back. In the lower part are two large brass rectangular plates set adjacent, containing an epitaph to Sir Clement Heigham in 44 lines of English rhymed heptameter couplets, engraved in very controlled gothic lettering. Directly surmounting these are three figural groups separately mounted. Sir Clement, in full plate armour and with sword, appears centrally: he kneels in prayer at a desk with an open book upon it, his helmet beside it and his gauntlets hanging in front of it. He faces sinister (to the right as viewed), towards a separate group facing towards him, representing his second wife (Anne Waldegrave) kneeling at another desk, and behind her their two daughters, Judith and Dorothy.

Sir Clement faces away from a third group on the dexter side (left as viewed), representing his first wife Anne Munnings kneeling at another desk, with their five daughters, Elizabeth, Margaret, Anne, Frances and Lucy, kneeling behind her. Between Sir Clement and this group is a gap with three rivet holes in the wall, representing a missing fourth group directly behind him which should have shown his sons by his second wife, John, Thomas and William Heigham. Vincent, the son of the first marriage who died in infancy, is shown by a kneeling shrouded chrisom child just behind Sir Clement himself.

Above these images are three heraldic shields. The central one, engraved on a square plate of latten, bears the arms of Heigham (quarterly 1st and 4th Heigham; 2nd and 3rd Francys), including the crest of a horse's head erased, argent. The other two escutcheons are shield-shaped plates. The shield to the right as viewed, above the second wife, contains the arms of Waldegrave, 1st and 4th (shown as a quartering with Montchency, Creake, Vauncy and Moyne), quartered with Fray, 2nd and 3rd. The shield to the left as viewed represents the impalement of the Heigham quartering (as before) on the dexter side, with the Waldegrave quartering (as before) on the sinister side: it is the heraldic representation of the second marriage.