England; Bourne and Lincolnshire
Heckington of Bourne — heiress line transmitted into the Cecil quartered achievement
- Family / house
- Heckington of Bourne; Ekington; Walcot; Cecil of Burghley
- Family / cadet branch
- Heckington of Bourne, Lincolnshire; heiress branch entering Cecil of Burghley
- Armiger / bearer
- Jane Heckington, wife of Richard Cecil
- Entity type
- family
- Social rank / class
- landed_gentry
- Heraldic authority
- Monumental inscription and later heraldic copies of the Cecil achievement
- Record basis
- ancient_usage
- Issued / first recorded
- c.1501
- Until / superseded
- 10 March 1587/88
- Historical period
- Tudor England
- Blazon
- Argent, on a bend cotised Gules three cinquefoils Or, as the Heckington quarter is given in the late sixteenth-century heraldic panel tradition. Some antiquarian copies instead report three mullets Or; the cinquefoil form is the better-supported version in the Cecil quartering tradition but the variant should be retained in the research notes.
- Plain-English description
- A white shield crossed by a red band edged on both sides, bearing three gold cinquefoils. This coat entered the Cecil family through Jane Heckington, who was the daughter and heiress of William Heckington of Bourne.
- Tinctures
- Argent; Gules; Or
- Charges / ordinaries
- bend cotised; three cinquefoils
- Exterior ornaments
- Normally displayed as a quarter within the Cecil achievement, or in an heiress context on an escutcheon of pretence or marital composition.
- Difference / variant
- The Heckington arms are not a paternal Cecil cadency mark. They are an inherited maternal or heiress-derived quarter incorporated into the wider Cecil genealogical achievement.
- Source reference
- Stamford monument inscription, reproduced on Wikimedia Commons
- Source
- Open source
Genealogical context
- Father
- William Heckington of Bourne
- Mother
- Possibly Alice Walcot; the Walcot connection is reported in later genealogical material but should not be treated as fully secure without primary evidence
- Spouse(s)
- Richard Cecil of Burghley
- Children / next generation
- William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley; Margaret Cecil; Elizabeth Cecil; Anne Cecil
Documented depiction
Notes / sources
The user's phrase 'Jane Hecki' is best resolved as Jane Heckington. Her significance is genealogical and armorial: she was an heiress whose family quarter became part of the Cecil's deliberately genealogical six-quarter display. The exact maternal descent from Walcot should remain provisional because later genealogical accounts differ in detail.