James Heywood (philanthropist)

James Heywood
Born	28 May 1810
Died	17 October 1897
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Occupation	Politician
Relatives	Thomas Percival (grandfather) Benjamin Heywood (brother)

James Heywood (28 May 1810 – 17 October 1897) was a British MP, philanthropist and social reformer.

Early life

James Heywood was born on 28 May 1810 in Manchester, Lancashire. He was the brother of Benjamin Heywood and Thomas Heywood and grandson of Thomas Percival. He matriculated from Trinity College, Cambridge and was admitted to the Inner Temple.

Career

Heywood was a member of the Portico Library and the Manchester Statistical Society, of which he was president between 1853–55,^{[citation needed]} and published a study of the population of Miles Platting in Manchester.^[1] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and served as their President from 1875 to 1877.^[2] He was also interested in geology and in 1840 donated some hundred specimens to help form the mineral collection of Manchester Museum.^[3] In 1835, he became the first president of the Manchester Athenaeum and he was also involved with the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.^[4]

Heywood was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in February 1839. His candidature citation read: "James Heywood, Esq of Trinity College, Cambridge, residing at 17 Cork Street, London, Barrister of the Inner Temple, author of a Report on the Geology of the Coal District of South Lancashire, published in the Transactions of the British Association, & also of a Report on the state of the population in Miles Platting, Manchester, published in the Journal of the Statistical Society of London; a gentleman much attached to science, being desirous of becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society, we the undersigned, do, from our personal knowledge, recommend him as deserving of that honor, & as likely to be a useful & valuable member"^[1]

Heywood was Liberal MP for North Lancashire from 1847 to 1857. He campaigned for free libraries, museums and art galleries, university entrance for dissenters and university degrees for women. He was President of the Sunday Society which campaigned for leisure activities to be available on Sundays.

Heywood opened the first free library in Kensington at Notting Hill Gate in the 1870s, a decade prior to the 1889 dedication of the Kensington Central Library in the Kensington Vestry Hall.^[5]

Heywood died on 17 October 1897.

References

1. "Library and Archive catalogue". The Royal Society. Retrieved 5 August 2010.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
2. "Royal Statistical Society List of Past Presidents". Royal Statistical Society. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
3. "The Manchester Museum - Rocks and Minerals". Manchester University. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
4. White, Alan (1990). "Class, culture and control: the Sheffield Athenaeum movement and the middle class 1847-64". In Wolff, Janet; Seed, John (eds.). The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class. Manchester University Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-71902-461-0.
5. Denny, Barbara; Starren, Carolyn (1998). Kensington Past. London, U.K.: Historical Publications. p. 152. ISBN 9780948667503. OCLC 42308455.

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

Media related to James Heywood (philanthropist) at Wikimedia Commons

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by James Heywood
• Works by or about James Heywood at the Internet Archive

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Wilson-Patten John Talbot Clifton	Member of Parliament for North Lancashire 1847 – 1857 With: John Wilson-Patten	Succeeded by John Wilson-Patten Lord Cavendish of Keighley
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by Robert Needham Philips	President of the Manchester Statistical Society 1853–55	Succeeded by William Metcalf