Clement Heigham

Sir Clement Higham, or Heigham, (pre-1495 – 9 March 1571) of Barrow, Suffolk, was an English lawyer and politician, a Speaker of the House of Commons in 1554, and Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1558–1559. A loyal Roman Catholic, he held various offices and commissions under Queen Mary, and was knighted in 1555 by King Philip, but withdrew from politics after the succession of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558. 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.