HEVENINGHAM, Henry (1651-1700), of Hockwold, Norf. and Heveningham Hall, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

26 Mar. - 2 June 1685
1698 - 26 Nov. 1700

Family and Education

b. 5 Jan. 1651, 2nd s. of Arthur Heveningham (d.1658) of Hockwold by w. Jane. educ. Pembroke, Camb. 1667; G. Inn 1669. m. lic. 1 July 1684, Frances, da. and coh. of William Willoughby, 6th Baron Willoughby of Parham, wid. of Sir John Harpur, 3rd Bt., of Swarkeston, Derbys., and of Charles Henry, 1st Earl of Bellomont [I], s.p. suc. bro. by 1669, cos. Sir William Heveningham in Suff. estate 1678.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Thetford 1682, mayor 1682-3, 1684-5; commr. for assessment, Derbys., Northants. and Norf. 1689; dep. lt. Suff. 1690-?d.; j.p. Derbys. 1693-d., capt. of militia horse by 1697-d.2

Capt. indep. tp. 1685, Queen Dowager’s Horse (later 6 Dgn. Gds.) 1686-Nov. 1688.3

Lt. gent. pens. 1689-d.4

Biography

Heveningham’s ancestors had been seated on the Suffolk estate from which they took their name since the reign of King John, and represented the county in 1399. They were not a regular parliaentary family, however, and since the acquisition of Ketteringham in the 15th century their Norfolk interests had preponderated. The family was divided in the Civil War; Heveningham’s uncle William was a strong Parliamentarian who sat in the high court of justice, while his father, a royalist colonel, was taken prisoner at the battle of Langport in 1645, and compounded with a fine of £400. According to Heveningham’s mother, he was

reduced to great poverty by imprisonment and sequestration, fined £600 for receiving a privy seal for £60 for the late King’s service at Oxford, and dying left her and her children to the charge of his brother William, who within two months turned them out of doors and, but for friends, they must have perished.

At the Restoration she recovered her portion of £200 p.a. from her brother-in-law’s estate, the remainder of which, though forfeited under the Act of Indemnity, was regranted to his wife.5

Heveningham succeeded his cousin in the Suffolk estates in 1678 under an entail, but continued to reside for some time at Hockwold, ten miles from Thetford. He acted as intermediary between the corporation and the Government in 1682, and was named as a ‘burgess’ in the new charter. He was serving a second term as mayor when he was elected to James II’s Parliament, and listed among the Opposition. But he was unseated in favour of (Sir) Joseph Williamson without taking any known part in its proceedings. On the invasion of the Duke of Monmouth he raised a troop of horse at Ipswich, and was later given a regular commission. Nevertheless he went over to the Prince of Orange in November 1688. He did not stand at the general election, but when Sir Henry Hobart chose to sit for the county he wrote to the corporation of Thetford on 3 Feb. 1689:

I hope my appearing so early and with hazard to my person and estate for the service of my country according to the Prince of Orange’s declaration will give me an equal share, if not a preference, to any stranger that shall appear as candidate for your voices.

But he never regained his seat, though William gave him a post at Court worth £500 p.a. He sat for Dunwich as a court Whig in two later Parliaments, but died on 26 Nov. 1700, the last of the family, and was buried at Ketteringham.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Add. 19135, f. 268; Mar. Lic. (Harl. Soc. xxx), 171; Blomefield, Norf. ii. 185.
  • 2. SP44/165/61, 166/138; Norf. Official Lists ed. Le Strange, 230; J. C. Cox, Three Centuries of Derbys. Annals, 43; Eg. 1626, f. 13.
  • 3. CSP Dom. 1686-7, p. 169; 1687-9, p. 370.
  • 4. Ibid. 1689-90, p. 25.
  • 5. Copinger, Suff. Manors, ii. 92-96; Blomefield, v. 92-95; R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Norf. in Civil War, 188, 302; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 360; 1661-2, pp. 97, 158, 351, 624.
  • 6. SP29/21/89; R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 2, p. 336; Add. 27448, f. 354; Luttrell, iv. 711; Add. 19135, f. 268.