Dugdale's Visitation of Lanc. (Cheth. Soc.), ii. 138; Palatine Note-book, i. 19, 20, 81, 104, 155, 167, ii. 183, 233; Earwaker's Manchester Court Leet Records, iv. 283; Journals of House of Commons, iii. 270, iv. 127, v. 662, 663; bibliography in Trans. Lanc. and Cheshire Antiq. Soc. vii. 134.]
HEYRICK, THOMAS (d. 1694), poet and divine, son of Thomas Heyrick of Market Harborough, Leicestershire, and grandson of Thomas Heyrick (or Herrick), elder brother of Robert Herrick the poet [q. v.], was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1670 and M.A. in 1675. In 1671 he was among the contributors to the collection of Cambridge verses on the death of Anne, duchess of York. He became curate of Market Harborough, and in 1685 published ‘The Character of a Rebel. A Sermon preached … on … the Day of Thanksgiving … for His Majesties Victory over the Rebels,’ London, 4to, with a dedication to Edward Griffin, esq., treasurer of the Great Chamber. His ‘Miscellany Poems’ appeared in 1691, 4to, with a dedication to the Countess of Rutland, and commendatory verses by Joshua Barnes, William Tunstall, and others. The long rambling Pindaric (which begins on sig. Q, with a new title-page), ‘The Submarine Voyage,’ is tiresome reading; but some of the shorter poems—‘On a Peacock,’ ‘On an Ape,’ ‘On the Crocodile,’ ‘On a Sunbeam,’ &c.—are quaint and fanciful. Heyrick has commendatory verses before Joshua Barnes's ‘History of Edward III,’ 1691. He was buried at Market Harborough on 4 Aug. 1694.
[Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 502.]
HEYSHAM, JOHN, M.D. (1753–1834), physician, born at Lancaster on 22 Nov. 1753, was the son of John Heysham, shipowner, by Anne Cumming, the daughter of a Westmoreland ‘statesman.’ He was educated at a school kept by quakers at Yealand, near Burton, Westmoreland, and then apprenticed for five years to a surgeon at Burton. In 1774 he joined the medical classes at Edinburgh, and graduated M.D. in 1777. His thesis was ‘De rabie canina,’ a disease of which no case in man or dog ever occurred in his own experience. In 1778 he settled in practice at Carlisle, and resided there until his death on 23 March 1834. He was buried in St. Mary's Church, and a memorial window has been placed at the east end of the south aisle of the cathedral. His practice at no time exceeded 400l. a year. In 1779 he began the statistical observations by which he is best known: a record of the annual births, marriages, diseases, and deaths in Carlisle for ten years (to 1788), including a census of the inhabitants in 1780, and again in 1788. These statistics, which were published with remarks on them at Carlisle in 1797, were used in 1816 by Joshua Milne, actuary of the Sun Life Assurance Office, as the basis of the well-known Carlisle Table. Heysham was also a naturalist, his observations on the flora and fauna of his district being recorded in Hutchinson's ‘History of Cumberland.’ He was intimate with the cathedral dignitaries, and is conjectured to have assisted Archdeacon Paley on questions of structural design in nature. He published also ‘An Account of the Jail Fever at Carlisle in 1781,’ London, 1782. In Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations’ (viii. 267) there is a letter of Bishop Percy, in which he recommends Heysham; and a letter of Heysham's to Percy is in the same collection (viii. 357). With the help of the dean and chapter he established the first dispensary for the poor at Carlisle. Having been a strong tory and supporter of the Lonsdale family most of his life, he joined the reform movement in 1832. His informal conduct as a justice of the peace, together with other personal traits, are fully and amusingly described by his biographer.
[The Life of John Heysham, M.D., and his correspondence with Mr. Joshua Milne relative to the Carlisle Bills of Mortality, by H. Lonsdale, M.D., London, 1870.]
HEYTESBURY, WILLIAM (fl. 1340), logician, is mentioned as a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 1330, of which college he was bursar in 1338 (G. C. Brodrick, Memorials of Merton College, Oxford, 1885, p. 207). In a record of the scrutinies of the college in 1338–9, printed by J. E. Thorold Rogers (History of Agriculture and Prices, ii. 670–4, Oxford, 1866), his name appears variously as Hethelbury, Hegterbury, and Hegtelbury, and this last spelling suggests an identification with the William Heightilbury who was appointed one of the original fellows of Queen's College in 1340 (Wood, Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, Colleges and Halls, ed. Gutch, p. 139), a presumption which gains a high degree of probability when it is considered that three others of the original fellows of Queen's College are named in the scrutinies of 1338–9 as fellows of Merton, and more were members of that college. Possibly the founder of Queen's College purposely withdrew from Merton College those fellows whom the scrutiny shows to have constituted a malcontent minority of their body. The only remaining notice of Heytesbury's life is that he (William Heighterbury or Hetisbury) was a doctor of divinity and chancellor of the university in 1371 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Gutch, p. 28), at which date
