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English military writer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Hexham (c. 1585 – c. 1650) was an English military writer. He also worked on Mercator's Atlas and on a Copious English and Nether-duytch Dictionarie.
Hexham was born in Holland, Lincolnshire. His mother appears to have been a sister of Jerome Heydon, merchant, of London, who was probably related to Sir Christopher Heydon. The cousin, John Heydon, to whom Hexham dedicates his Appendix of Lawes, has been identified with Sir John Heydon (died 1653), Sir Christopher's son, and Sir Christopher's daughter Frances married Philip Vincent, who has commendatory verses prefixed to Hexham's translation of Mercator's Atlas.
Hexham was placed as a page in his early youth to Sir Francis Vere, with whom he remained through the siege of Ostend in 1601. His narrative of it appears at the end of Sir Francis Vere's Commentaries (1657). Hexham seems to have served Sir Francis until his return to England in 1606, then remained in the Low Countries, possibly in a town garrisoned by the English. He was personally acquainted with Prince Maurice of Nassau and his brother, Frederick Henry. In 1611 he published a Dutch translation of The Highway to Heaven, by Thomas Tuke entitled De Konincklicke wech tot den Hemel... (Dordrecht). In 1623 came A Tongue Combat lately happening between two English Souldiers... the one going to serve the King of Spain, the other to serve the States Generall (London, 1623). When Sir Horace Vere in 1625 went to relieve Breda, Hexham was quartermaster to his regiment. He held similar positions under Vere during the siege of 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629, and the capture of Venlo, Roermond and Strale, and siege of Maastricht in 1631–1632.
After Vere's death, Hexham became quartermaster to the regiment of George Goring, with whom he served at the siege of Breda in 1637. In 1640 he was in England, and on 27 July received a pass on going to Holland on private business. On 23 July 1641, Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway wrote to Secretary Edward Nicholas that he had known Hexham as long as he could remember and was sure he was a good Protestant, who would take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, as he did four days later. Hexham, however, took no part in the civil wars in England. He returned to Holland before 1642 and stayed there in Dutch service and busy with literary work. His English-Dutch Dictionary has a preface dated Rotterdam, 21 September 1647. He probably died about 1650.
Hexham's major work is an edition of Mercator's Atlas, which translates into English the edition by Jodocus Hondius, with Hexham making some additions of his own. He was assisted by Hondius's son Henry. The preface is dated Amsterdam, 1 January 1636 stilo veteri (old style) and dedicated to Charles I. Published in two volumes in Amsterdam in 1636–1637, it contains many maps and coloured plates and counts as the standard Mercator edition. Another important work was his Copious English and Nether-duytch Dictionarie … as also a compendious grammar for the instruction of the learner. The English-Dutch part appeared in Rotterdam in 1648. dedicated to Hexham's friend Sir Bartholomew van Vouw, knight. The Dutch-English part appeared only in 1658, in Rotterdam. Hexham's undated preface claims his is the first dictionary of its kind. Second editions were published by Daniel Manly, the Dutch-English in 1672 and the English-Dutch in 1675, both in Rotterdam.
Hexham's other works relate to military history, dealing with events in which he himself took part. They are:
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