To anyone who has studied English Catholic books of the early seventeenth century, the imprints, “Doway, for John Heigham” and “S. Omers, for John Heigham” have a familiar—not to say monotonous—ring. There are over sixty books in existence today, printed between 1609 and 1631, which bear one or other of these imprints. Yet very little is generally known about the man himself. The biographies of him which appear in works of reference tell us next to nothing about him and what they do tell us is for the most part incorrect. In this note I shall try to unravel some of the muddles which have arisen and set out briefly the main outline of his career in so far as it can be established from the evidence.
