Heywood served as High Sheriff of Devon in 1759. After a contest, Heywood was returned for Fowey on the Edgcumbe interest in 1768, although no vote by him is recorded before February 1774. In 1770 Thomas Davenport wrote to the Duke of Portland, that "Heywood would have Administration support at the next election." There is no record of his having spoken in the House and he did not stand again for Parliament.[1]
Before his death, Heywood sold his Jamaican estate, Heywood Hall (and the enslaved people on it), to Donald Campbell for £18,000.[5]
Personal life
Portrait of his daughter, Mrs. John Musters, by George Romney, 1785
In 1755 Heywood married Catherine Hartopp, daughter and co-heiress of Gen. Chiverton Hartopp of Welby, Nottinghamshire, the Lt. Governor of Plymouth.[8] Her sister, Mary Hartopp, was the wife of Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe.[7] Together, Catherine and James were the parents of one son and five daughters,[1] including:
Maria Henrietta Heywood (c. 1763–1817), who married Lewis Montolieu, a director of Hammersley's Bank who was a son of Lt.-Col. Louis Charles Montolieu, Baron de St. Hypolite, in 1786.[14] Lewis' sister, Anne, was the wife of Sir James Lamb, 1st Baronet.[15]
Frances "Fanny" Heywood (1765–1834), who married Thomas Orby Hunter, a grandson of Thomas Orby Hunter, MP for Winchelsea, in 1796.[15]
Heywood died on 22 March 1798 and was buried at St Botolph's, Shenleybury, Shenley.[16] After his death, he instructed that his English estates be sold to fund the trusts under his will.[5] Accordingly, Maristow House was sold to Manasseh Masseh Lopes (the son of a rich plantation owner, whose family later gained the title of Baron Roborough),[17] reputedly for £100,000.[5]
^"Bertie, Admiral Sir Albemarle". The annual biography and obituary for the year 1825. Vol. 9. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green. 1825. p. 396.
_-_Mary_Heywood,_Mrs_James_Heywood_(1706%E2%80%931755)_-_624155_-_National_Trust.jpg)
