Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hegge, Robert
HEGGE, ROBERT (1599–1629), miscellaneous writer, born at Durham in 1599, was the son of Stephen Hegge, notary public in that city, by Anne, daughter of Robert Swyft, LL.D., prebendary of Durham (Hegge, Legend, &c., ed. Taylor, introduction). On 7 Nov. 1614 he was admitted scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 13 Feb. 1617 and M.A. on 17 March 1620 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 372, 393). Wood says that he was ‘accounted, considering his age, the best in the university for the Mathematical faculty, History, and Antiquities, as afterwards for his excellent knowledge in the Sacred Scriptures.’ He was elected probationer fellow of his college on 27 Dec. 1624, but died suddenly on 11 June 1629, and was buried in Corpus Christi Chapel. Hegge wrote a ‘Treatise of Dials and Dialling,’ preserved in the college library, to which he also presented a manuscript of St. Augustine's ‘De Civitate Dei’ (Coxe, Cat. of Oxford MSS. Corpus Christi College, pp. 8, 14). Another treatise from his pen, entitled ‘In aliquot Sacræ Paginæ loca lectiones,’ was published at London in 1647 by his fellow-townsman, John Hall (1627–1656) [q. v.], who intimated that if it met with the approval of scholars, he had more ready for press. A third treatise by Hegge, entitled ‘Saint Cvthbert; or the Histories of his Chvrches at Lindisfarne, Cvncacestre, and Dvnholme,’ was written in 1625 and 1626. Richard Baddeley, private secretary to Morton, bishop of Durham, printed a poor edition of it from a copy in Lord Fairfax's library, and suppressed the name of the author; he called it ‘The Legend of St. Cvthbert, with the Antiquities of the Church of Durham. By B. R., Esq.,’ 12mo, London, 1663. A very correct edition was printed in quarto by George Allan at his press in Darlington in 1777, and another by John Brough Taylor, F.S.A., at Sunderland in 1816. Taylor's edition is printed from a manuscript, probably the author's autograph, which belonged to Frevile Lambton of Hardwick.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 456–8; authorities as above.]