Martin Heton Explained

Martin Heton
Occupation:	British bishop
Birth Date:	1554

Martin Heton (Heaton) (1554–1609) was an English Bishop whose grandfather was the Lord Mayor of London.

Life

His father George Heton was prominent in the London commercial world and as a church reformer.^{[1] [2] [3]} His mother Joanna was daughter of Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor of London in 1545.^[4] He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.^[5]

He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1588.^[6] He became Dean of Winchester in 1589, and Bishop of Ely in 1599.^[5] There is a story that Elizabeth I applied pressure to him, or his predecessor Richard Cox, over some land deals disadvantageous to the diocese, in a letter beginning “Proud prelate!”^[7] But scholars from the nineteenth century onwards, for example Mandell Creighton, have considered the letter in question a hoax of the eighteenth century.^[8]

A fat man, Heton was supposedly complimented by the king James I with the comment "Fat men are apt to make lean sermons; but yours are not lean, but larded with good learning."^[9]

He died in Mildenhall, Suffolk in 1609 and is buried in Ely Cathedral.

Family

His daughter Ann married Sir Robert Filmer.^[10]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Introduction - The Chamber in the sixteenth century | Chamber accounts of the sixteenth century (pp. XXXII-XXXVIII). british-history.ac.uk. 2014-04-12.
2. Web site: John Foxe's Book of Martyrs . 2009-01-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110517030305/http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/usheressay.html . 2011-05-17 . dead .
3. ODNB entries for George Heton and his brother Thomas Heton.
4. Web site: Townships - Heaton | A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5 (pp. 9-12). british-history.ac.uk. 2014-04-12.
5. Concise Dictionary of National Biography
6. Web site: Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford - University of Oxford . 2008-08-05 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080521100042/http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/key_university_officers/vcs_of_oxford.html . 2008-05-21 .
7. Web site: Ely Place | Old and New London: Volume 2 (pp. 514-526). british-history.ac.uk. 2014-04-12.
8. [:s: The English Church in the Reign of Elizabeth]
9. Remains, historical & literary, connected with the palatine counties of Lancaster and Chester (1844-86), online text.
10. David Miller (editor), The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (1991), p. 155.