Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heynes, Simon
HEYNES, SIMON (d. 1552), dean of Exeter, was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1515–16, was elected fellow of his college in 1516, proceeded M.A. in 1519, and had a title for orders from Queens' College in February 1521. He took part in procuring the expulsion of Dr. John Jennins from the presidentship of Queens' in 1518, and in 1528 was himself elected president. Being empowered by the college to make bargains and covenants at his discretion, he alienated some of the estates belonging to the society. On 28 Nov. 1528 he was instituted to the rectory of Barrow, Suffolk. He was one of the delegates appointed by the senate to make a determination as to the king's divorce in 1529–30; commenced D.D. in 1531, and in 1532–3 and 1533–4 served the office of vice-chancellor. On 23 May 1533 he attested Cranmer's instrument of divorce at Dunstable, and in 1534 was admitted vicar of Stepney, Middlesex, in which year he and Dr. Skip were selected by the court to preach at Cambridge against the supremacy of the pope. In 1535 he was sent with Mount as ambassador to France. At the end of the same year he was instituted to the rectory of Fulham, Middlesex, and on 24 Dec. was installed canon of Windsor (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 392). On 16 July 1537 he was elected dean of Exeter (ib. i. 387), in which capacity he attended the baptism of Prince Edward, afterwards Edward VI, and soon afterwards resigned the presidentship of Queens' College. A letter in condemnation of the bill of the six articles, addressed by him to a member of parliament, is printed in Strype's ‘Ecclesiastical Memorials,’ 8vo edit., vol. i. pt. ii. p. 408. In 1538 he and Edmund Bonner [q. v.], afterwards bishop of London, were sent to Spain, and joined in commission with Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) [q. v.], the ambassador there. Offended by Wyatt's contemptuous treatment of them, they afterwards charged him with holding traitorous correspondence with Reginald Pole and speaking disrespectfully of the king. Heynes signed the decree of 9 July 1540 invalidating the marriage of Henry VIII with Anne of Cleves, and on the following 17 Dec. the king made him one of the first prebendaries of Westminster (ib. iii. 350). He was also a visitor of the university of Oxford, the college of Windsor, and the church of Exeter, and one of the commissioners against the anabaptists. He also assisted in the compilation of the first English liturgy. He died in October 1552, leaving by his wife Joan (afterwards married to William May, archbishop-elect of York) two sons, Joseph, aged five years, and Simon (will in P. C. C. 29, Powell).
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 80, 542; Letters and Papers of Reign of Henry VIII (Brewer and Gairdner).]