Sir Christopher HEYDON of Baconsthorpe, Knight

Born: ABT 1561, Baconsthorpe, Norfolkshire, England

Died: 1623, Baconsthorpe, Norfolkshire, England

Buried: Baconsthorpe Church, Norfolkshire, England

Father: William HEYDON (Sir)

Mother: Anne WOODHOUSE

Married: Mirabel RIVETT ABT 1583, Saxlingham, Norfolkshire, England

Children:

1. John HEYDON (Sir Knight)

2. William HEYDON

3. Henry HEYDON

4. Nathaniel HEYDON

5. Thomas HEYDON

6. Miles HEYDON

7. Anne HEYDON

8. Jane HEYDON

9. Frances HEYDON


M.P. for Norfolk, who had been knighted at Cadiz and served in the Low Countries for many years as a companion-in-arms to Sir Francis De Vere.

In 1600 he quarrelled violently John Townshend, who was prevented from fighting a duel only by the action of the Privy Council.

Sir Christopher was also a renowned astrologer who in 1603 had written the controversial Defence of Judicial Astrology. His son John was the 'learned Knight' who in 1612 had foretold impending disaster for the King when during Prince Henry's fatal illness a comet and lunar rainbow had appeared over London. The Defence was in Huygens's library, as indeed was to be Henry Hexham's Copious English and Netherduytch Dictionarie - the first Anglo-Dutch dictionary ever printed - which to a certain extent owed its existence to the protection of its military author by this same Sir Christopher who was a relation of Hexham's.

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