Henry Heydon

Sir Henry Heydon (died 1504) was the son of John Heydon of Baconsthorpe, Norfolk, 'the well-known opponent of the Paston family'. He married Anne Boleyn, the daughter of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, great-grandfather of Henry VIII's queen Anne Boleyn.

Henry Heydon was the son of John Heydon (d.1479) of Baconsthorpe, Norfolk, and Eleanor Winter, the daughter of Edmund Winter (d.1448) of Barningham, Norfolk. Trained as a lawyer, he frequently advised other Norfolk landowners and acted for them as a feoffee and arbitrator. He served as a Justice of the Peace in Norfolk from 1473, and on various commissions in that county and elsewhere.

His inheritance from his father included at least sixteen manors, and he added to his holdings through the purchase of lands in both Norfolk and Kent. One of his purchases in Kent was West Wickham, and after establishing himself as a Kent landowner he served as Justice of the Peace there in the late 1480s and in the 1490s. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, was a trustee for his land purchases in Kent, and Heydon subsequently acted as steward in Norfolk to Buckingham's widow, Catherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham, in the 1490s. He was a supervisor of the will of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, and served as her steward of household and chief bailiff of the Honour of Eye.

Although he was knighted at the coronation of Henry VII, and was among those present at the reception of Catherine of Aragon when she arrived in England in 1501, he was 'primarily a local servant of the crown rather than a courtier'.

Some of the wealth he accumulated as a sheep farmer was expended in building projects. In Norfolk he completed the castle begun by his father at Baconsthorpe, restored the parish church at Kelling and built a new church at Salthouse, and constructed a causeway between Thursford and Walsingham. In Kent he rebuilt the church at West Wickham, and built a fortified manor house there.