James Heywood

James Modyford Heywood ( – 22 March 1798) was a British politician who represented Fowey in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1768 to 1774.

Early life Portrait of his mother, Mrs. James Heywood, by Michael Dahl, Heywood was the only son of James Heywood (c1684–1738), of Maristow (near Roborough in Devon) and Jamaica, and the former Mary Elton (1706–1755), His paternal grandparents were Col. Peter Heywood and Grace ( Modyford) Heywood (daughter of Elizabeth ( Stanning) Modyford and Sir James Modyford, 1st Baronet, Deputy-governor of Jamaica). His sister, Lucy Heywood, married Sir Robert Throckmorton, 4th Baronet.

Heywood succeeded to his father's estates in 1738, including Heywood Hall in St. Mary, Jamaica. He was educated at Eton between 1742 and 1747 and entered Trinity College, Cambridge on 8 June 1747, aged 17.

Heywood served as Lord of the Admiralty from December 1783 to March 1784. Her sister, Mary Hartopp, was the wife of Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe. Together, Catherine and James were the parents of one son and five daughters, Emma Heywood (–1805), who married Admiral Sir Albemarle Bertie, 1st Baronet, the natural son of Lord Albemarle Bertie, the brother of Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven and Brownlow Bertie, 5th Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, in 1783. Maria Henrietta Heywood (–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. Lewis' sister, Anne, was the wife of Sir James Lamb, 1st Baronet.

Heywood died on 22 March 1798 and was buried at St Botolph's, Shenleybury, Shenley. After his death, he instructed that his English estates be sold to fund the trusts under his will. reputedly for £100,000.