Giles Heron

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/he...

Heron had been involved in a number of disputes over lands and with his tenants, dependants and relatives, including one with his brother Christopher and another with Robert Dormer over lands which had belonged to Heron’s brother-in-law John Dynham. When recording Heron’s sale of Rycote in Oxfordshire to Sir John Williams, Leland was to describe him as ‘wise in words, but foolish in deeds’; the sale was confirmed by a private Act (31 Hen. VIII, c.19). It was a dispute with a tenant, one Lyons, whom Heron had expelled from his farm, which led to his downfall. In 1539 Lyons, seeking revenge, appears to have informed Cromwell of certain treasonable words or deeds attributed to Heron and to have tried to get others to confirm them. In February of that year Heron had to find three recognizances of 500 marks each for his appearance before the Council when called to answer charges: at this time he can hardly have been suspected of treason but in May he was ‘in trouble’ in the Fleet and in July he was sent to the Tower as a suspected traitor. Cromwell’s memoranda include a number of references to Heron and from these it appears that Lyons was the only witness against him. It was perhaps because he could not easily have secured a conviction on this evidence that Cromwell had a bill of attainder introduced into the Lords on 3 May 1540 which passed through all its stages in both Houses in six days (32 Hen. VIII, c.58). Cromwell's own 'fall' delayed the execution until Aug. 1540, when Heron was hung, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.

Cecily More (1507-?): Married Giles Heron on 29th September 1525. Giles was the son of Sir John Heron of Hackney, Middlesex, and his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Griffith Rees of Wales. On his father's death in 1523 Giles became a Ward of Sir Thomas More. Cecily and Giles heron had three children: i. Thomas: Married Cecily Jekyl. No issue. ii. John. iii. Anne: Eventual heir. Married (1) ….Horsley; (2) ……Osborne (first names not recorded). [Source: "The Family and Descendants of St. Thomas More". By Martin Wood. Published in the UK by 'Gracewing'. April 2008.]