Clement Higham
Sir Clement Higham MP JP PC 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. His mother was Matilda, daughter of Lawrence Cooke of Lavenham. His exact birth date is not known, but 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.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. In 1521 Clement Heigham, Roger Reve 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, 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, 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, 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 of Nettlestead, by deed of Sir William Waldegrave of Smallbridge Hall, Sir William Drury of Hawstead and Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke Hall. 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 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.
During the 1540s Anne Heigham's daughters were married: three of them were married to three brothers, the sons and coheirs of the royal physician William Butts and his wife Margaret, heiress of the Cambridgeshire family of Bacon. Joan Bures married William Butts the younger, lord of Thornage, Norfolk, who died in 1583; Bridget Bures married Thomas Butts, lord of Ryburgh Magna, Norfolk, who took part in the 1536 voyage of Richard Hore to Newfoundland; and Anne married Edmund Butts, of Barrow, Suffolk in 1547, and had a daughter Anne Butts. The fourth daughter, Mary, married Thomas Barrow of Shipdham, Norfolk, and was mother of the separatist, Henry Barrowe.
Abbot John had, until the dissolution of St Edmund's, been responsible for the collecting of the tenths in the diocese of Norwich, and in Edward's reign Heigham was still being held accountable for £972 outstanding so on the abbot's account. However, after an Act was introduced in 1549 to regulate and restore monastic pensions, in September 1552 Heigham was appointed a commissioner, together with Sir William Drury, Sir Thomas Jermyn, Sir William Waldegrave and others, to investigate abuses. They interviewed the late priors of Woodbridge and Eye, the abbot of Leiston and the prioress of Redlingfield, the Master and three fellows of Wingfield College, and many priests, former monks and lay annuitants. It was found that Ambrose Jermyn had accepted the transfer of an annuity as an inducement for the granting of a benefice; Edward Reve had sold his annuity to John Holt, one of the commissioners. Heigham was given two geldings and named an executor in the will of Sir Thomas Jermyn, written September, proved December 1552.
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, 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 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, 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.