Martin Heton
{{Short description|English Bishop}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Martin Heton
| image = Martin Heton Bishop of Ely (cleaned up).jpg
|alt = Portraut, 1607
| caption = Martin Heton, 1607
| other_names =
| occupation = British bishop
| birth_date = 1554
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1609|||1554|||df=yes}}
| birth_place =
| death_place =
}}
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.{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64544|title=Introduction - The Chamber in the sixteenth century | Chamber accounts of the sixteenth century (pp. XXXII-XXXVIII)|publisher=british-history.ac.uk|access-date=2014-04-12}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/usheressay.html |title=John Foxe's Book of Martyrs |access-date=2009-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517030305/http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/usheressay.html |archive-date=2011-05-17 |url-status=dead }}ODNB entries for George Heton and his brother Thomas Heton. His mother Joanna was daughter of Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor of London in 1545.{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=52991#n26|title=Townships - Heaton | A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5 (pp. 9-12)|publisher=british-history.ac.uk|access-date=2014-04-12}} He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.Concise Dictionary of National Biography
He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1588.{{cite web|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/key_university_officers/vcs_of_oxford.html |title=Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford - University of Oxford |access-date=2008-08-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080521100042/http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/key_university_officers/vcs_of_oxford.html |archive-date=2008-05-21 }} He became Dean of Winchester in 1589, and Bishop of Ely in 1599. 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!”{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45119|title=Ely Place | Old and New London: Volume 2 (pp. 514-526)|publisher=british-history.ac.uk|access-date=2014-04-12}} But scholars from the nineteenth century onwards, for example Mandell Creighton, have considered the letter in question a hoax of the eighteenth century.:s: The English Church in the Reign of Elizabeth
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."Remains, historical & literary, connected with the palatine counties of Lancaster and Chester (1844-86), [https://archive.org/details/remainshistorica19chetuoft online text].
He died in Mildenhall, Suffolk in 1609 and is buried in Ely Cathedral.
Family
His daughter Ann married Sir Robert Filmer.David Miller (editor), The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (1991), p. 155.
References
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{{Deans of Winchester}}
{{Bishops of Ely}}
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Category:People educated at Westminster School, London
Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford