# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heveningham, William

​HEVENINGHAM, WILLIAM (1604–1678), regicide, member of an influential family seated at Ketteringham in Norfolk, born in 1604, was the eldest surviving son of Sir John Heveningham, knt. (1577–1633), of Ketteringham, by his second wife, Bridget (d. 1624), daughter of Christopher Paston of Paston, Norfolk (Pedigree facing p. 5 of Hunter's Ketteringham, also p. 41). In 1633 he was chosen sheriff of Norfolk (Vicecomites Norfolciæ, 1843). On 27 Oct. 1640 he was elected M.P. for Stockbridge in the county of Southampton (Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return, pt. i. 493). At the outbreak of the civil war he took sides with the parliament. He advanced 250l. presumably for the garrison of Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, which was ordered to be repaid him by the collector of the county of Suffolk on 31 Jan. 1644 (Commons' Journals, iv. 37). In January 1646 he was serving on the committee of the Eastern Association (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. i. p. 10 a). On being nominated one of the high court of justice to try the king he attended on 22, 23, and 27 Jan. 1649, when the sentence was confirmed, but refused to sign the death-warrant. He was constituted a member of the council of state on the following 13 Feb., and placed on various committees (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50 p. 6, 1650 p. 322). At the sales of bishops' lands he purchased, on 1 June 1649, the manors of Dalston, Rose Castle, and Linstock, the property of the diocese of Carlisle, for 4,161l. 12s. 10d. (Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, i. 290). In 1651 he became vice-admiral of Suffolk (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651 p. 241, 1651–1652 pp. 130, 550). At the Restoration Heveningham surrendered upon the proclamation of 6 June 1660, and stated that he was the very first to come in. Between 21 May 1660 and 7 Feb. 1662 he petitioned the lords four times for mercy on the plea that he refused to consent to the king's death in spite of Bradshaw's importunity. He also asserted that he had furnished 500l. towards Sir George Booth's [see Booth, George, first Lord Delamere] expedition in 1659. He boasted of generosity towards his dead brother, the loyalist Colonel Arthur Heveningham (d. 1657) (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. pt. i. pp. 86, 125, 129, 158). His brother's widow Jane (then Mrs. Wakeham), however, declared that he had defrauded her and her family and turned them out of doors without means of support (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1 p. 360, 1661–2 p. 351). On 18 Oct. 1660 he was tried at the Sessions House in the Old Bailey. He was brought up by himself on 19 Oct., and sentence of death formally passed (Cobbett, State Trials, v. 995, 1000, 1219, 1225, 1229–30). He was then imprisoned in Windsor Castle, attainted, ​and deprived of his estates. The crown however, made a grant of the property, on 26 Sept. 1661, to Brian, viscount Cullen, and four others, as trustees for his wife, Lady Mary Heveningham, and thus the estate was recovered to the family (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1661–2, pp. 97, 158). Owing to the exertions of the Careys, earls of Dover, into which family Heveningham had married, Charles ultimately resolved to spare his life (ib. Dom. 1660–1, pp. 312, 313). In 1662 Lady Mary Heveningham petitioned the king to be allowed to remove her husband from Windsor Castle to her own house at Heveningham in Suffolk (ib. 1661–2, p. 624). On 15 Aug. 1664 a warrant was issued to Lord Mordaunt, constable of Windsor Castle, to take Heveningham into custody and keep him safe until further orders (ib. Dom. 1663–4, p. 667). In September 1667 he was still confined in Windsor Castle (ib. Dom. 1667, p. 465). He died on 21 Feb. 1677–8, and was buried in Ketteringham Church on the 25th of the same month (parish register). His grave is covered with a plain slab of black marble. During the same year, 1678, Lady Mary Heveningham erected on the north side of the chancel a sumptuous marble monument to herself, children, and husband, but carefully omitted his name from the inscription. Heveningham was twice married, first by license dated 23 Nov. 1629 to Catherine, daughter of Sir Henry Wallop of Farley, Wiltshire (Chester, London Marriage Licenses, 1521–1869, ed. Foster, col. 673), who died without surviving issue on 13 Aug. 1648, and was buried at Heveningham. He married, secondly, Mary, only surviving daughter and heiress of Sir John Carey, K.B., who succeeded in April 1666 as second earl of Dover. Their son William was knighted on 19 May 1674 (Townsend, Cat. of Knights, 1660–1760, p. 35), and was buried at Heveningham on the following 14 Oct. (parish register). Lady Mary Heveningham died at her house in Jermyn Street, London, on 19 Jan. 1695–6, and was buried at Ketteringham on 9 Feb. (ib.)
[Information kindly communicated by Sir Francis G. M. Boileau; Joseph Hunter's Hist. and Topography of Ketteringham, 1851; C. J. Palmer's Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, iii. 314–15; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1650, 1651–2, pp. 130, 550, 1658–9 p. 7, 1660–1 p. 340, 1661–1662 p. 50, 1663–4 pp. 163, 167, 185; Noble's Lives of the English Regicides, i. 348–51 (worthless); will of Lady Mary Heveningham (P. C. C. 138, Bond); Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, ii. 203; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, pp. 13, 191, 220; Chester's London Marriage Licenses, 1521–1869 (Foster), cols. 971, 1066.]
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