Henry Spelman

Sir Henry Spelman (c. 1562 – October 1641) was an English antiquary, noted for his detailed collections of medieval records, in particular of church councils.

In 1617, he served on a commission to inquire into disputed Irish estates, and later took part into legal inquiries into the exactions levied on behalf of the Crown in the civil and ecclesiastical courts.

His general services to the state were recognized in 1636 by a gift of money and two years later by the offer of the mastership of Sutton's Hospital, Charterhouse.

He was survived by his sons, John Spelman, Judge Clement Spillman, and a daughter, Catherine, who married a Secretary of State.

Sir Henry has become known as master of the sacrilege narrative (the idea that divine retribution was visited on those who despoiled the monasteries of their estates during the English Reformation), not least through his experimental examination of the genealogies of all the landed families within a twenty-four mile radius of his Norfolk home.