Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heete, Robert
HEETE, ROBERT, or Robert of Woodstock (d. 1428), canonist and civilian, presumably a native of Woodstock, Oxfordshire, became scholar of Winchester College in 1401, and in due course scholar of New College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. and LL.B. He was a pupil of William Barrowe, doctor of decretals, and afterwards bishop of Bangor and Carlisle. In 1413, when Barrowe was chancellor, Heete delivered a lecture on the first book of the decretals. He was chaplain of the chantry of the Holy Trinity in All Saints' Church, Oxford, the patronage of which belonged to his college (Wood, City of Oxford, ii. 110, Oxf. Hist. Soc.), and rector of St. Mildred's, Oxford. In 1417 he became fellow of the college, and in 1422 was admitted fellow of Winchester College. He died on 28 Feb. 1428 (Reg. Winchester College, ap. Moberly, p. xii).
Heete owned New College MS. 92, and was the author of part of its contents, viz.: 1. ‘Lectura super primum librum Decretalium … extractum ex diversis doctoribus,’ ff. 9–82. 2. ‘Lectura super Decretalium librum quintum,’ ff. 83–99. 3. ‘Brocarda juris canonici, et civilis secundum R. [Heete?].’ He may also have written some of the other articles, which include several anonymous orations and some legal ‘adversaria.’ The volume bears the inscription ‘Lib' R. Heete precij xiii s. iiij d.,’ and a statement that it was bequeathed by him for the use of any law fellow of the college. Heete was also in all probability the author of a short life of William of Wykeham preserved in a manuscript at Winchester College: ‘Libellus seu Tractatus de prosapia, vita, et gestis venerabilis patris et domini, domini Willelmi de Wykeham, nuper episcopi Wynton.’ This volume is dated 1424 and contains a dedication to the fellows of Winchester and New Colleges; its author was certainly fellow of one or both of those colleges. Martin, in his ‘Life of Wykeham,’ ascribes it to one Robert Heers or Heresius, but there is no such name in the ‘College Registers.’ Heete's ‘Life of Wykeham’ is printed in the Rev. G. H. Moberly's ‘Life of Wykeham’ (Appendix E, pp. 293–308); it contains some short pieces of elegiac verse. The ‘Life’ preserved in New College MS. 288, art. 3, under the title ‘Brevis Chronica de ortu, vita, et gestis nobilibus reverendi domini Willelmi de Wykeham,’ is extracted from Heete's ‘Life.’ It was printed by Wharton in his ‘Anglia Sacra’ (ii. 355), where it is erroneously ascribed to Thomas Chaundeler, warden of New College. Heete gave numerous donations of plate and books to Winchester College.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 388; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, ed. Gutch, pp. 171, 197; Kirby's Winchester Scholars, pp. 4, 28; Lowth's Life of Wykeham, 3rd ed. 1777, preface, pp. xiii–xvi; Moberly's Life of Wykeham, preface, pp. xi–xii; Coxe's Cat. MSS. in Coll. Aulisque Oxon. i. 73–4, 103.]