Sir William Hevingham High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1633 and Member of Parliament from 1640, and during the Civil War 1642-51. Commissioner of the court that in 1649 tried Charles I, but he was one of those who refused to sign the execution warrant. After the Restoration in 1660, he was found guilty of treason but successfully petitioned for mercy

The Hockwold manors passed to William Heveningham on his father’s death in 1633. The house was occupied by his brother Colonel Arthur Heveningham, who married Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund Mundeford*. Their son, Sir Henry Heveningham MP, was born at Hockwold in 1651. Sir Henry wrote the poem ‘If music be the food of love’, based on a line in

After Sir William Paston (c1528-1610) purchased the Hockwold manors, his uncle, a retired naval commander, Sir Clement Paston (c1508-1597) had use of them (from 1584) Sir Clement was Sheriff of Norfolk in 1588. After Sir Clement died, in 1602, Sir William settled the Hockwold manors and land in Feltwell on his granddaughter, Bridget Heveningham, who had married John Heveningham

Tudor House Sir Thomas Tindale had purchased “Poynings Manor” shortly after the death of his father in 1539, to become the new family seat, and the ‘Tudor House’ was probably completed well before his death in 1583. It is E-shaped, brick with stone quoins and plinth chamfers, and a stone octagon tower at the rear that was the

Henry Percy - 6th Earl of Northumberland Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland (1478–1527), inherited the estate of his cousin, Sir Edward Poynings in 1521. His eldest son, Henry Percy, loved Anne Boleyn, but his father considered her ‘a mere knight's daughter, and not an appropriate fit for his son and heir’. He married Lady Mary Talbot, daughter of the

  In 1483 after the death of Edward IV, Edward (age 24) led an uprising in Kent against Richard III and had to flee the country, but returned in 1485 to be knighted and serve Henry VII in the Netherlands, France and Ireland. He was sent to Ireland as Lord Deputy in 1494-5 to establish “Poynings Law”, whereby

  Poynings Barony By 1323, the manor at Hockwold and several other properties in Norfolk were owned by Michael de Poynings. After the Battle of Crécy (1346), Michael was granted a knighthood and in 1348 he was summoned to Parliament to become the 1st Baron Poynings. Robert Poynings, 4th Baron, had three sons and by his second wife, a

Hockwold Cross In 1914, the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society noted the base of a medieval cross in the grounds of Hockwold Hall, close by the drove from Hockwold along the “skirt lands” to Blackdike. This base has since been moved closer to the house, from its original location probably by the crossroads at the northeast corner of the

Hockwold is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and it is said that there was a property on the site belonging to William De Warenne before passing it to Alveva, the wife of the Earl of Mercia.

  Robert Lord Poynings, upon his death the Jury of  Henry VI found him to have held this manor of Hockwold cum Wilton, and the advowson of the church of Hockwold, two messuages, 200 acres of land, 10 of meadow, and 100s. rent, of the manor of Castle-Acre and in 1464, Elizabeth Lady Poynings presented to the rectory, as lady of this manor. Elizabeth married Sir Robert