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

Life

His father

George Heton George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

was prominent in the London commercial world and as a church

reformer A reformer is someone who works for reform. Reformer may also refer to: *Catalytic reformer, in an oil refinery *Methane reformer, producing hydrogen * Steam reformer *Hydrogen reformer, extracting hydrogen *Methanol reformer, producing hydrogen ...

. His mother Joanna was daughter of

Martin Bowes Sir Martin Bowes (1496/97 – 1566) was a very prominent and active civic dignitary of Tudor London whose career continued through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.C.E. Challis, 'Bowes, Sir Martin (1496/7–1566)', ''Ox ...

, Lord Mayor of London in 1545. He was educated at Westminster School and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

.Concise Dictionary of National Biography He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1588. He became Dean of Winchester in 1589, and

Bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of nort ...

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!” But scholars from the nineteenth century onwards, for example Mandell Creighton, have considered the letter in question a hoax of the eighteenth century. 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." He died in Mildenhall, Suffolk in 1609 and is buried in

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The presen ...

Family

His daughter Ann married

Sir Robert Filmer Sir Robert Filmer (c. 1588 – 26 May 1653) was an English political theorist who defended the divine right of kings. His best known work, '' Patriarcha'', published posthumously in 1680, was the target of numerous Whig attempts at rebuttal ...

.David Miller (editor), The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (1991), p. 155.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heton, Martin 1554 births 1609 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Deans of Winchester Bishops of Ely 17th-century Church of England bishops Clergy from London