Life

He was born in Holland, Lincolnshire

Holland, Lincolnshire

Holland is an area of south-east Lincolnshire, England. The name is still recognised locally and survives in the district of South Holland.-Administration:...

. His mother appears to have been a sister of Jerome Heydon, merchant, of London, who was probably related to Sir Christopher Heydon. The cousin, John Heydon, to whom Hexham dedicates his Appendix of Lawes, has been identified with Sir John Heydon (died 1653), Sir Christopher's son, and Sir Christopher's daughter Frances married Philip Vincent

Philip Vincent

Relatively little is known of the "P. Vincent" who published two works in London in 1637-38. However, he did give a genealogical account of his family up until 1630. Little is known about him after this date except that he was in America in 1637 at the time of the Pequot War...

 , who has commendatory verses prefixed to Hexham's translation of Mercator

Mercator

Mercator may refer to:* Marius Mercator , a Catholic ecclesiastical writer* Gerardus Mercator, a 16th-century Flemish cartographer** Mercator projection, a cartographic projection devised by Gerardus Mercator...

's Atlas.

Hexham was in early youth attached as a page to the service of Sir Francis Vere; he was with Vere throughout the siege of Ostend

Ostend

Ostend  is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....

 in 1601, and his narrative of that event is printed at the end of Sir Francis Vere's Commentaries (1657). Hexham seems to have served with Sir Francis until his return to England in 1606 and to have remained in Holland, possibly in one of the towns garrisoned by the English; he was personally acquainted with Prince Maurice of Nassau and his brother, Frederick Henry

Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange

Frederick Henry, or Frederik Hendrik in Dutch , was the sovereign Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel from 1625 to 1647.-Early life:...

. In 1611 he published a Dutch translation of The Highway to Heaven, by Thomas Tuke

Thomas Tuke

Thomas Tuke was an English clergyman and controversial writer, of royalist views in later life.-Life:He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1599 and commenced M.A. in 1603. He was minister at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, London, in 1616. On 19 July 1617 he was...

, under the title De Konincklicke wech tot den Hemel … (Dordrecht); and in 1623 appeared A Tongue Combat lately happening between two English Souldiers … the one going to serve the King of Spain, the other to serve the States Generall (London, 1623). When Sir Horace Vere in 1625 went to the relief of Breda

Breda

Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...

, Hexham was quartermaster to Vere's regiment, and he occupied a similar position under Vere during the siege of Bois-le-Duc in 1629, at the capture of Venlo

Venlo

Venlo is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands, next to the German border. It is situated in the province of Limburg.In 2001, the municipalities of Belfeld and Tegelen were merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tegelen was originally part of the Duchy of Jülich centuries ago,...

, Roermond

Roermond

Roermond is a city, a municipality, and a diocese in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.The city of Roermond is a historically important town, on the lower Roer at the east bank of the Meuse river. It received city rights in 1231...

, and Strale, and the siege of Maastricht

Maastricht

Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...

 in 1631–2.

After Vere's death he became quartermaster to the regiment of George Goring

George Goring, Lord Goring

George Goring, Lord Goring was an English Royalist soldier. He was known by the courtesy title Lord Goring as the eldest son of the 1st Earl of Norwich.- The Goring family :...

, with whom he served at the siege of Breda in 1637. In 1640 he was in England, and on 27 July he received a pass on going to Holland on private business. On 23 July 1641 Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway

Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway

Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway PC was an English politician, military commander and peer.-Early life and education:...

 wrote to Secretary Edward Nicholas

Edward Nicholas

Sir Edward Nicholas was an English statesman.-Life:He was the eldest son of John Nicholas, a member of an old Wiltshire family.He was educated at Salisbury grammar school, Winchester College and Queen's College, Oxford...

 that he had known Hexham as long as he could remember, and was sure that Hexham was a good Protestant and would take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, which he did four days later. Hexham, however, took no part in the civil wars in England; he returned to Holland before 1642, and remained there in the Dutch service and busy with his literary work. His English-Dutch Dictionary has a preface dated Rotterdam, 21 September 1647, and he probably died about 1650.

Works

Hexham's most substantial work is his edition of Mercator's ‘Atlas;’ this was a translation into English of the edition by Jodocus Hondius

Jodocus Hondius

Jodocus Hondius , sometimes called Jodocus Hondius the Elder to distinguish him from his son Henricus Hondius II, was a Flemish artist, engraver, and cartographer...

, but Hexham made additions of his own, and was further assisted by Hondius's son Henry. The preface is dated Amsterdam, 1 Jan. 1636 ‘stilo veteri,’ and the work is dedicated by Hexham to Charles I; it was published at Amsterdam in 1636–7 (2 vols.), contains many maps and coloured plates, and is the standard edition of Mercator. Another important work by Hexham was his Copious English and Nether-duytch Dictionarie … as also a compendious grammar for the instruction of the learner. The English-Dutch part was published at Rotterdam (1648), and dedicated by Hexham to his friend Sir Bartholomew van Vouw, knt.; the Dutch-English part was not published until 1658 (Rotterdam), and Hexham's preface has no date. He claims that his is the first dictionary of the kind, and a second edition was published by Daniel Manly, the Dutch-English part in 1672, and the English-Dutch part in 1675 (both Rotterdam, 4to).

Hexham's other works relate to military history, dealing with events in which he himself took part. They are:

• ‘A Historicall Relation of the Famous Siege of the Busse and the Surprising of Wesell …,’ Delft, 1630, dedicated to the merchants adventurers at Delft; a Dutch edition was published in the same year.
• ‘A Journall of the taking of Venlo, Roermont, Strale, the memorable Siege of Mastricht, the towne and castle of Limbruch … anno 1632,’ Delft, 1633; dedicated to his kinsman Francis Morrice, clerk of the king's ordnance, who had married his uncle Jerome Heydon's widow; a Dutch edition was published at 's Gravenhage (1633).
• ‘The Principles of the Art Militarie practised in the Warres of the United Netherlands,’ London, 1637; dedicated on 5 September 1637 to Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland
  Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland
  Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland was an English aristocrat, courtier and soldier.-Life:He was the son of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick and of Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich, and the younger brother of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick...
  
  . A second and enlarged edition was published in three parts: the first two at Delft in 1642, and the third at Rotterdam in 1643; Dutch editions appeared at the same time, dedicated to William of Orange
  William III of England
  William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
  
   and Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
  Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
  Charles Louis, , Elector Palatine KG was the second son of Frederick V of the Palatinate, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and his wife, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England ....
  
  .
• ‘A True and Briefe Relation of the famous Siege of Breda,’ Delft, 1637, dedicated to the Earl of Holland; a Dutch edition was published at The Hague (1638).
• ‘An Appendix of the Quarter for the ransoming of Officers … together with the Lawes and Articles of Marshall discipline enacted on the States side,’ Delft, 1637; another edition, The Hague, 1643.
• ‘The Art of Fortification … by Samvell Marolois … augmented by Albert Girard
  Albert Girard
  Albert Girard was a French-born mathematician. He studied at the University of Leiden. He "had early thoughts on the fundamental theorem of algebra" and gave the inductive definition for the Fibonacci numbers....
  
   … and translated by Henry Hexham,’ Amsterdam, 1638; translated from Samuel Marolais, it is dedicated to Henry Vane the elder
  Henry Vane the Elder
  Sir Henry Vane, the elder was an English politician and secretary of state.-Origins and education:Vane was born on 18 February 1589, the eldest son of Henry Vane or Fane of Hadlow, Kent, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Roger Twysden of East Peckham, Kent...
  
  .
• ‘A True Relation of the Battell of Nieupoort,’ Delft, 1641.
• ‘An Appendix of Lawes, Articles, and Ordinances established for Marshall Discipline in the service of the … States Generall … translated out of Dutch into English,’ The Hague, 1643; dedicated to Hexham's cousins, John Heydon and John Harvey. In the preface, dated Delft, 30 Jan. 1643 ‘stilo novo,’ Hexham says he wishes to prevent the pillage committed on both sides during the civil wars by showing the means taken by the Dutch to check it; he also remarks that he had served forty-two years in the wars and had never been wounded.