James Heywood FRS was an English Member of Parliament, university reformer, philanthropist and statistician. A Unitarian from a Manchester banking family, he is best remembered as a leading parliamentary advocate of university reform: his motion of April 1850 was the occasion for the appointment of the royal commissions on the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and in June 1854 he carried the amendment that removed the religious tests excluding Dissenters from matriculating or taking the BA degree at Oxford. Having "secured the admission of dissenters to the universities", he then "worked to make university education available to women", advocating the opening of London degrees to women and serving on the founding committee and council of Girton College. He was also an early promoter of the free public library movement.

Occupation: statistician, politician, barrister
Position held: member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom, member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom, president of the Royal Statistical Society
Citizenship: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Born: May 28, 1810
Died: October 17, 1897

Overview

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 son of banker Nathaniel and Ann (née Percival) Heywood, and 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, and published a study of the population of Miles Platting in Manchester. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and served as their President from 1875 to 1877. He was also interested in geology and in 1840 donated some hundred specimens to help form the mineral collection of Manchester Museum. In 1835, he became the first president of the Manchester Athenaeum and he was also involved with the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 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"

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